


into the night with me

by LtTanyaBoone



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood Drinking, F/F, Kidnapping, Mind Manipulation, Torture, violence in later chapter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-12 16:06:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 36,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21479113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LtTanyaBoone/pseuds/LtTanyaBoone
Summary: Cosima'd figured that perhaps she could offer Dyad a trade. She's a scientist, after all. Her natural curiosity, her penchant for science and learning, along with being immortal, it's helped her gain quite some knowledge in her lifetime. She'd figured that perhaps the Institute would be interested in hiring her.akarewrite/expansion of the vampire!AU of Every Me and Every You
Relationships: Delphine Cormier/Aldous Leekie, Delphine Cormier/Cosima Niehaus
Comments: 98
Kudos: 174





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This might get long, so as usual when these notes can take a moment to get through, content warnings first.
> 
> **content/trigger warnings** for: blood and consummation of it, mind manipulation, semi-graphic violence in later chapters, abuse of power/manipulation, kidnapping, torture
> 
> I think that is all, at least it is off the top of my head. I will bump up the rating later on, one of the final chapters contains sexual content, too, but it might go up before that due to some violence in another chapter.
> 
> This is the rewrite/expansion of [the vampire!AU I did for Every Me and Every You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1812904/chapters/36749553). I started writing this not long after I posted that chapter, so yeah, this has been a long time in the making (over a year, actually). I did enjoy writing this, even if it kicked my ass at times and I wrote myself into a couple of not very pretty corners and had to get out a shovel to dig myself free.
> 
> I don't want to put it in the tags bc it's only mentioned as a past thing, but there is some Shay Davydov/Cosima Niehaus in this. (the reason I'm not putting it in the tags is bc I don't want someone who is looking for Shaysima content to click this, only to find that she is only ever mentioned briefly in one chapter as a past lover, i know how annoyed i get when that happens for pairings i enjoy reading)
> 
> I'll try to update this twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays. Due to my personal circumstances at the moment, I might not be able to always make those deadlines, unfortunately, esp bc there's no way to schedule posts on here. I hope you can be somewhat understanding and forgiving, and I do hope you enjoy these two bloodsucking idiots. I stand by what I wrote in the intro to the EMaEY chapter. There is something about the image of (especially S3) Delphine with fangs that just... *shivers*
> 
> (for shits and giggles, the title for this is actually from an Ed Sheeran song, ["All Of The Stars"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_GDwELa-KU). yes, i am _that_ kind of writer. obnoxious, isn't it?)

The lab assistant appears to be friendly enough. He motions for Cosima to follow him, which she does, entering the elevator after him.

This might have been a mistake, she cannot help but keep thinking. The Dyad Coven has a reputation. One for being a ruthless bunch of sociopaths, when it comes to humans. A cluster of vampires who think they're better than humans. Who think that their kind should be ruling the world and throw humans into subjugation.

It's not what Cosima believes. Sure, she has moments when she doesn't particularly care, about what goes on in human society. But that's because they are a whole other species. She's a firm believer in friendly cohabitation. Doesn't think that humans, as a whole, are bad. Not necessarily. They're not all good, either, but the same is true for their kind, really. The only reason why they no longer get involved in major human wars, is because they realized a long time ago that if they did, they'd end up killing off their food supply. Which would just be stupid, really. So they've withdrawn to the shadows. Leave humans to their own devices, mostly. There are a few vampires who dabble in human politics and power plays, but aside from that, that's it. It serves them a lot better, to leave them alone to their own devices, really.

And maybe it's not the best basis for good collaboration, that her own philosophy is so different from that of the Dyad Coven. But the thing is, Dyad Institute controls and owns all the major research into their kind. Into their physiology, into their anatomy, into their limitations and weaknesses. Just last year, they managed to achieve a huge breakthrough, in regards to UV exposure. The Institute is the first to actually get a vampire out into the sun, for however briefly. That had been, huge. Their society had been buzzing with the news for months, still is, to an extent, yet when Cosima tried to research it, she'd run into wall after wall after wall. It's her need for knowledge, for figuring out her own nature, that has brought her here.

She'd figured that perhaps she could offer Dyad a trade. She's a scientist, after all. Her natural curiosity, her penchant for science and learning, along with being immortal, it's helped her gain quite some knowledge in her lifetime. She'd figured that perhaps the Institute would be interested in hiring her, so to speak.

Not that she has any interest in actually joining their Coven. She's more of a lone wolf, these days. Well, lone bat, really. Most of the older vampires are. Either they find a few who are their age and settle down with them, or they turn their back on the rest and grow into solitary creatures. Not that Cosima is that old. She's not, she received the Gift in the first half of the eighteenth century. There are vampires out there who are significantly older than her, she's well aware of that. But at her age, she'd found that she doesn't necessarily have the patience for the busy life of most Covens any more. Doesn't have it in her, to guide newly turned- pardon, freshly Gifted vampires during their first decades. She's just, tired. Of listening to the same ravings over and over again. It kind of gets old, really, after the fiftieth repetition. And honestly, if she hears one more baby bat moan about how hungry they are, and plead if they could just bite that guy over there, just a little nibble, really, what could be the harm, she will be the one to tear their throat out herself, she swears.

The elevator takes them to the basement, when the lab assistant leads her down a maze of corridors, into the Old Wing of the Institute. It's quieter, here, not as busy as the main building. Cosima finds herself welcoming the change.

They enter a big lab, after he swipes his ID over the scanner at the door.

Cosima takes her time to look around, biting back an impressed whistle. She knew that this Coven has money. Like, Money money. But she's still impressed with their state-of-the-art equipment.

"Delphine," the lab assistant says, voice low and raspy, and Cosima turns her attention to the blonde standing at a microscope, working. She looks up sharply and turns her head, her eyes holding a yellow glint.

The lab assistant, a younger vampire for sure, quickly looks to the side and tilts his head, exposing his neck in a gesture of submission.

"Thith, ith Cothima," he lisps, his fangs having extended on reflex.

Cosima finds herself watching as the harsh yellow of Delphine's eyes softens and her features relax. She takes a step away from her workspace and turns to face them, eyes softening further when she finds Cosima.

"Welcome," she nods. "Aldous told me, to expect you," she tells Cosima, who makes a mental note of her being on first-name basis with Leekie. As far as she can tell, he's the Coven Elder, and Cosima had been surprised to find him going by a last name, but then again, given how much the Institute probably deals with humans, it makes sense.

As Delphine meets her eyes, Cosima feels the push. A gentle prod at first, then more insistent, with more strength behind it. She furrows her brows slightly and concentrates, pushes back at the mental pressure.

Delphine's eyebrows lift slightly in surprise, and Cosima tilts her head with a small grin, keeping up the pressure. Waits, to see what the blonde woman will do now. From the way the lab assistant cowered immediately, Cosima figured that the blonde isn't a nobody. Now, she finds that there is actual power lurking beneath the smooth surface.

Physically, Delphine looks to be in her mid-twenties, about the same age Cosima was, when she received the Gift herself. But Delphine is old. This isn't the uncontrolled power some younger vampires have, where they don't know what to do with it, how to wield it. No, this is carefully honed and controlled strength.

She can feel the strain, an unpleasant feeling at the back of her mind. An incessant voice, whimpering, whispering to her to submit, to give up, to just let it go. Kneel, expose her throat to the other woman in submission. She's pretty sure that Delphine feels the same thing. Can see her hands ball into fists, can see the distortion of her mouth as her fangs begin to extent, and Cosima feels the familiar sensation of her lips curling back to expose her own in a threat display.

In the end, she's the one who breaks eye contact. Manages to ignore the whimper and doesn't kneel, nor exposes her throat. Just blinks, and looks away for a moment. Places her hand on the desk next to her, to brace herself against it and draw a deep breath she no longer needs.

Delphine doesn't say anything, for a moment. She regards Cosima with interest, before swallowing heavily and looks away herself, her fangs beginning to retract.

"Leekie said to just, join whatever it is you're working on," Cosima tells her, thankful for her age and it having taught her how to speak without a lisp despite her fangs being out. Because those suckers are refusing to retract, right now, her subconscious still bristling after her mental wrestling match. "That you'd show me the ropes."

"Yes," Delphine murmurs and reaches up to run a hand through her hair. She doesn't comment on Cosima's fangs still being out as she leaves her station and motions for Cosima to follow her. They leave the lab area proper and enter a room that's more for writing up reports, it seems, a laptop sitting at each of the four desks. Delphine shows her to one of the desks, the Dyad logo slowly turning around on the screen. Delphine logs in and pulls up a presentation for Cosima, motioning towards the chair to get her to sit.

"I am sure you have heard of our success with regards to UV exposure," she says. Cosima finds herself nodding, eyes scanning the screen.

"I was wondering about that, actually," she says. "How you did it, I mean," she adds and looks at the other scientist. Delphine's brows furrow slightly.

"That, would take too long to explain right now," she shakes her head, and Cosima finds herself wondering if the French accent is fake. Given how old Delphine probably is, she would have thought that she'd have managed to lose the accent, by now, if French used to be her first language. Most of them do, after all. Lose their individual accents over the centuries, until they develop a strange sort of generic accent that immediately identifies them to one another.

Though, perhaps Delphine really is new, in this part of the world at least. It's not something that happens very often, one of the older ones leaving their usual territory, that is. Their kind has a penchant for getting, territorial, after a couple of decades spent in one place. It makes them, testy, when they find other vampires invading what they consider their territory. And it also means that they rarely stray far away from it. For Delphine to still have a French accent, yet to be in Canada right now, that is... intriguing, in its rarity.

The blonde sets her up with a few presentations, then leaves Cosima to read them as she returns to her own work. Cosima finds herself starting to take notes during the first one, and at the end of the third, she starts looking up things. Begins to dig deeper in Dyad's research, their history.

It's fascinating, and bone-chilling at the same time. She thought these vampires, that they were ruthless when it came to humans, but they seem to be more indiscriminate in who is on the receiving end of their experiments than Cosima would have thought possible. They even experiment on their own kind. What Cosima finds are over a hundred years worth of experiments on their own. Most of which were notably conducted on vampires already sentenced to death by the Alliance. Apparently, the Institute argued in using them to further their research, so that their death would have at least some positive effect on their society.

It doesn't make any of it easier to read. The knowledge that these vampires would have been killed anyway is one thing. Reading what tests were done on them, how they died, cruelly and in pain and alone, it's, horrid.

At the end of the night, her stomach is churning, a sensation building she hasn't felt in years. Decades, maybe. But it doesn't take her long to identify the sensation of dread that is slowly climbing up her spine at the question of what, exactly, she's just gotten herself into.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for the nice comments on the first chapter, they're greatly appreciated! i hope you enjoy the continuation of this as well =)

Officially, the Institute does not experiment on its employees. At least not unless they have been given explicit permission. That doesn't mean Cosima didn't go through her contract with them with a fine-toothed comb, to look for any loophole that may give these sociopaths permission to turn her into a guinea pig.

She ends up not finding anything, but still, the knowledge of what they've done to others makes her reluctant when it comes to trusting them.

An upside to her change of employment is that she can get her Liquid Diet through the Institute. It certainly beats the low-quality supply she's been getting from her previous food bank for sure.

When she first put in her request, the guy at the desk had asked her, if she had any preferences, regarding sex, age, or blood type. For shits and giggles, Cosima ended up asking for one of each Dyad offers, just to see if there really is a difference. Any preferences she may have had have long been overwritten by sheer survival instinct. Getting her blood through the usual vampire food banks never offered the luxury of getting to chose what she'd have liked. They give their customers what they need, and if that wasn't to their taste, then too bad.

Dyad's blood still tastes fresh, though. It can't be more than a few days old, the plastic bag it comes in hasn't yet left behind it's familiar aftertaste.

She ends up joining Delphine for lunch in the kitchen almost every day. The blonde woman prefers her blood in a mug, heated briefly in the microwave. It tells Cosima two things: that until recently, Delphine fed from humans, and that Dyad is unperturbed by its employees doing so, seeing as no one seems to bat an eye at Delphine's eating habits. If anything, Cosima is the odd one out, here. She doesn't particularly care, what temperature the blood she consumes has. Has found, in the past, that when mixed with some nice wine, drinking it cold can be rather fun. Though Dyad seems to frown upon drinking alcohol on the job. Then again, that may be more due to the low tolerance of alcohol that younger vampires have than anything else. Ethanol bottles are kept in a separate storage and clearly labeled with warnings, so they won't accidentally hurt anyone.

Cosima once saw a vampire lose half their face thanks to an unfortunate incident involving a bottle of vodka. Their howling haunted her dreams for months after, the pained screeching trying to pull what had been left of her soul apart.

"Do you have a preference?" she asks Delphine during their mealtime. The blonde is cradling her mug in her hands, a blissed-out expression crossing her face.

"Huh?" she murmurs and opens her eyes again, her blown pupils narrowing. "Sorry, I was..." she says and makes a vague gesture. Cosima inclines her head and takes a sip of her own meal through the plastic straw she poked into the bag.

She's mostly doing that because she found it makes Delphine crinkle her nose adorably in slight disgust while Cosima slurps up the contents of her bag. She can be so, stuck-up and stiff, but Cosima is finding that actually working with the blonde, it's quite enjoyable. Delphine has an active brain that seems to never really slow down, and she is actually willing to bounce around ideas and give some more, outlandish suggestions at least a brief moment of consideration before she dismisses them.

"Preference, like what?" she inquires and takes a sip from her mug. "Do you mean, what blood type do I prefer?"

"Yeah," Cosima nods and watches her as Delphine licks her lips, thinking.

"I like 0," she finally says after a while. "I know that research suggest our preference, it may be linked to what we first fed on, after being Gifted," she goes on, and Cosima finds herself nodding along. She read those studies, as well. She's too old, to know the blood type of her first meal after being Gifted herself, so she can’t really confirm or deny it in reference to herself.

"To me, AB always tastes, bitter," Delphine frowns, taking another sip of her meal. "I don't very much care, whether it's Rh+ or Rh-, but 0 is by far the one I find most, tolerable," she says with a decisive nod.

"It's strange," Cosima comments, her brows creasing. "It used to all taste the same, to me," she adds, when Delphine tilts her head at her.

"It may have been the same," Delphine remarks, drawing a sigh from Cosima.

"I know," she mutters, her brows dipping in slight annoyance. Vampire food banks are known, for mixing left-over blood supplies when there are shortages. There is a chance that it all tasted the same to Cosima because it literally was, every bag contaminated with different blood types. Not that it matters, to most vampires. They can eat all types just fine, it just doesn't taste that great. But when you’re struggling for survival, the taste of your meal is the least of your concerns. What matters is that you get food, nothing else, and that’s the standard most vampire food banks operate under.

"Dyad's supply... It comes from their own bank, right?" she asks and Delphine nods, curls bopping slightly at the motion.

"C'est vrai," she confirms. "We have the luxury of running our own bank. Something most of us highly appreciate."

Cosima nods and finishes her food, getting up to throw the bag out. Maybe she should stop using straws. She's pretty sure that Dyad would appreciate getting their bags back undamaged, but, oh well.

"Question," she declares upon re-joining Delphine at their table. "When I put in my request, I was asked about what age I prefer," she tells Delphine. Watches the woman opposite her tilt her head slightly. "I don't think he was referring to how long ago the body was harvested either. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that only adults were allowed to donate blood for food supply."

There's a slight widening of Delphine's pupils, the softest of breaths leaving her at Cosima's words.

"How, exactly, does Dyad offer young blood? And more importantly, why does it do that?" she asks, searching the fellow vampire's face.

Delphine takes another sip of her drink, before setting down her mug deliberately.

"We don't," she tells her. "Not routinely, that is," she allows after Cosima decides to give her mind a gentle prod. "Some of the older vampires... they can be, particular," the blonde sighs and reaches up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "They don't feed very often, but when they do..."

"Yeah, spare me," Cosima shakes her head and crosses her arms. Pins Delphine with a look. "How do you get your hands on blood like that?" she asks, still trying to figure out how deep Dyad's dirty practices run. And how fast she should be running in the other direction herself.

"Accidents, mostly," Delphine shrugs. "Through, organ donation," she specifies at Cosima's confused look. "If there is a case of a child that is about to die, we try to convince the parents to release the body for organ donation. It's a sort of, win-win. Humankind receives some spare parts, and we secure an important food source."

Cosima finds herself letting out a soft snort at that.

"That makes our Elders sound like koala bears," she mutters.

"Pardon?"

"You know, like, how they only eat the leaves of one particular plant? And it has to be from a region they grew up in?" she tries.

"I am not familiar with the dietary requirements of Australian mammals," Delphine shakes her head. She picks up her mug again and takes a long sip. When she pulls it away, there's a droplet of blood at the corner of her mouth, and Cosima watches as Delphine's tongue darts out to lick it away.

It makes an image flash in her mind, of Delphine and her tongue, a mischievous glint in her amber eyes. Cosima shakes her head quickly, the gesture reminiscent of that of a dog. Or one of their lycanthropic... she's never entirely sure what the right word is. Werewolves aren't exactly best buddies with vampires, yet they aren't the enemies the human population would like to believe them to be. The truth is, they tend to stick to their own kind, mind their own business. Unless their paths have to cross, and while that's usually somewhat of a tense affair, it almost never involves any bloodshed.

"I have been meaning to ask," Delphine starts, her eyes searching Cosima's face, before they dart to the sleeves of her lab coat. "How did you..." she trails off, her brows dipping.

"How did I, what?" Cosima prompts her, leaning back in her chair. "My tattoos? How I got them?"

"Yes," Delphine nods. "I have never seen someone with clear lines like that, who got them after they were Gifted," she explains, her head tilting slightly.

"Ah," Cosima nods. Wonders, if she should get herself another bag and eat more. She's not hungry anymore, but then again, a boost wouldn't hurt. She just has to be careful, so she doesn't grow dependant on too frequent feedings. That would be an issue, even with Dyad's supply.

"I'm sorry, if that is too personal a question-"

"It's fine," Cosima waves her off. Reaches down to roll up the sleeves of her lab coat and exposes the two tattoos on the insides of her arms. One is a nautilus shell. The other a dandelion blowing its seed. She got them a while ago. A few decades, actually. The dandelion is due for a touch-up, but she hasn't been able to get in contact with her artist. Is starting to think that the fellow vampire has gone into hibernation. Which, good for them, but Cosima would have appreciated a warning.

"What do you want to know?" she asks as Delphine gently traces a finger down the spiral of the nautilus shell, the soft touch making the hair on the back of Cosima’s neck stand on end.

"How did you get them to stay?" the blonde asks, her brows dipping.

"Blood," Cosima shrugs. At the woman's surprised look, she lets out a soft chuckle. "My artist, they mixed the ink with blood. It meant I had to get it tattoed twice, it was too light, once the blood was absorbed by my body. And truth be told, I have no idea how it works, or why, but somehow, the blood prevents our bodies from pushing the ink back out," she shrugs.

"Fascinating," Delphine mutters, her thumb rubbing over the soft scars on Cosima's arm. "I never considered that, it's genius, really," she remarks.

"Yeah, Mira is awesome like that," she nods. "You got any ink?"

"Moi?" Delphine breathes, before letting out a laugh. "Non," she shakes her head. "No, no ink. No, metal, either."

"Surgical steel," Cosima tells her, tapping the side of her nose, where her ring piercing resides. That had been relatively easy, as far as body modifications go. Their quick healing meant that she had to irritate the site on purpose, to prevent her body from healing up, but it had been worth it.

She watches Delphine. Tries to imagine the other woman with a tattoo, or a piercing.

"You thinking of getting some ink?" Cosima asks her, wondering where her inquiry had come from. Delphine blinks and then gives a shake of her head.

"No," she says and brushes her hair behind her ear. "No, I was just... curious, I suppose," the blonde shrugs. "And also, maybe wondering about possible implications for our own research," she adds with a soft smile.

"Does your brain ever shut up?" Cosima laughs, happy to see Delphine grin at her.

"Not often, non," she confirms, her eyes sparkling with amusement that makes Cosima shake her head in exasperation.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An accidental demonstration of Delphine's power and Cosima finds out a little more about the blonde's history.

Much to her relief she comes to find that Delphine isn't a member of the well-established Human Hating Brigade within Dyad. It's a very welcome surprise, Cosima thinks. Delphine doesn't go on tangents and raves about what filthy, disgusting creatures humans are, nor does she encourage others who do so. She either lets the person talk, or cuts them off, when they're clearly a subordinate.

Speaking of which, that is a rather fascinating aspect, to working at Dyad. There's clearly the vampire hierarchy at play here. But there's also the scientific side to take into account, and it makes for a rather strange entanglement.

Like Delphine. She wouldn't be here, if she weren't a valuable addition to Dyad's research. If her work as a scientist wasn't excellent. At the same time, Cosima thinks that, were Delphine a younger vampire, she wouldn't be in the position of power she seems to be in. As far as the brunette has been able to tell, Delphine is the one in charge of the Old Wing of the Institute and the UV exposure research.

Working with her, it's strange. Stimulating, in a way that Cosima has rarely experienced before. She appreciates Delphine's attention to details. Their brains seem to be operating on a similar wavelength, Cosima oftentimes finds herself discussing new findings with Delphine, the two of them tossing questions and theories back and forth.

So it surprises her, when one evening, she walks into the lab to find a vampire cowering beneath his desk, trembling as he is curled up. She blinks at him and wonders, briefly, if she should tell him to get up, but then figures whatever it was that spooked him and sent him to look for protection in the first place, he'll get over it soon enough.

Yet as evening morphs into night and the hours pass, the poor guy doesn't make any attempt to come out of his hiding place. She's passed by his desk a few times and heard him whimper in fear every single time.

"What's with him?" she finally ends up asking Delphine after over two hours have passed, since her arrival at the lab.

The blonde looks up from her work, an irritated expression crossing her features. She looks over to the cowering vampire's desk, her eyes taking on a yellow glint.

"Oh, for Heaven's sake!" she exclaims and stalks over to him. Cosima watches her bend down and pull the poor guy up by the lapels of his lab coat, a helpless hiss leaving the dude. Delphine's face contorts in a snarl as her fangs extend, before she can reign herself in.

"Go feed," Delphine tells the guy after a deliberate breath. "Then come back after, and return to, whatever your work is," she says before pausing. Mentally checks the command for loopholes, her lips moving in a silent curse. "You will use Dyad's food supply today," she adds. Pauses again, for a moment, before she gives a nod and lets go of the lab assistant. Who quickly scurries from the lab, reminding her strongly of a spooked cat.

Cosima tilts her head as she watches Delphine trying to calm down again. The blonde returns to her station, her fangs still out, refusing to retract for the moment.

"What did you do?" Cosima inquires, watching her with interest. The blonde pauses, her mouth opening in surprise.

"Have you never seen-" she starts, and the brunette quickly shakes her head.

"No, I know what his was," she assures Delphine. She does, she's seen vampires do this before. Has done it herself a few times, though she usually sticks to the more subtle side of Influencing. Prefers a soft touch, a suggestion, instead of outright commands. Those can be tricky to get right, especially because people are kind of unpredictable in how they will interpret your words. You may think telling them to water the plants means they will pick up a watering can, fill it, and then go to work, but Cosima has seen that particular command backfire spectacularly once. It caused the gardener to throw potted plants into the pool.

"I meant, what did you do to get him to cower like that? Two hours, that's, impressive," she adds, when Delphine looks at her in confusion. Impressive, yes, and not to mention also rather disturbing.

Their submission is sort of involuntary, when it comes to vampires that are clearly stronger than them. Usually, their urge to submit, it wears off after about half an hour or so. At least the physical symptoms, the overwhelming urge to kneel and plead for their lives and expose their throats. And that is only if it goes unacknowledged by whoever triggered the submission response in the first place.

It's a simple gesture, really. Feels like a soft nudge, in her head, when she meets stronger vampires and submits to them, and they acknowledge her recognizing them as her superiors, so to speak. Honestly, Cosima cannot remember a time when she ran into one that didn't know how to do the acknowledgement, or forgot to do it. Which makes her think that Delphine, she did this on purpose. The blonde doesn't strike Cosima as the particularly forgetful type, so she must have left the guy there intentionally. She probably left him cowering and thought she'd check up on him in a bit, and then forgot the time.

"I, lost my temper, a little," the blonde admits, her fangs adding a soft lisp to her accent. "His work was unsatisfactory, and he tried to pass the blame to someone else, and I grew very short, with him," she frowns. Then reaches up and touches the tip of her fangs, a puzzled look crossing her face.

"A little?" Cosima repeats, her eyebrows lifting as she wonders not for the first time, how old Delphine really is. And if she actually held back, when they first met. If she may be a lot stronger than Cosima first thought her to be.

Delphine allows a sigh to escape her and motions for Cosima to follow her. She leads the way over to the kitchen and grabs herself a mug and a bag of her blood supply, pouring herself some before popping it into the microwave.

"His sire was recently lost," she explains when the machine shuts off with a loud beep and she pulls out her mug, inhaling the scent of the heated blood. She takes a sip and begins to relax, her fangs starting to finally retract.

"He seems to have trouble adjusting," the blonde woman adds, her head tilted slightly.

"Ah," Cosima nods and leans against the counter next to Delphine. Crosses her arms. "He must be very young, then," she muses. She hasn't been around her sire for decades. Over a century, actually, coming to think of it. They didn't have the best of relationships to begin with, anyway, and once she outgrew the need for his input, he was only too happy to leave her in the care of the Coven. Not that Cosima blames him. He hadn't planned on tur- Gifting her in the first place.

"Only a few months, I think," Delphine nods. Cosima finds her watching the brunette with sudden interest. "Do you have..."

"No," Cosima quickly shakes her head. "No, I never did. The Coven I used to belong to had a few fresh ones, but to be completely honest, they kind of, started to get on my nerves?" she frowns. "I never understood the desire to... procreate?" she offers, looking for the right word.

The other woman purses her lips, thinking.

"It can be fulfilling, I suppose," she offers as she finished her drink.

"Have you?" Cosima tosses the question back at her. And finds herself rather surprised when Delphine lets out a genuine laugh at the question.

"Non," she shakes her head, blonde curls bouncing with the motion. "It never occured to me to do it," she shrugs and reaches up to run a hand through her hair. "Though I suppose you could say I, helped raise some?" she frowns, sounding almost wistful.

Cosima watches her, for a moment, before she gathers her courage.

"I was wondering," she starts and clears her throat. "You, haven't been here long, have you?" she asks, her voice gentle. She's been trying to find a way to ask Delphine about it, but it never seemed like the right time. And hearing the blonde draw a slow breath at the question makes her wonder if right now was a bad moment, as well.

Then again, Delphine tends to breathe, a lot, Cosima's noticed. Either because she has spent a lot of time around humans, and trained herself to mimic them, or because she hasn't completely lost the reflex yet. Cosima hasn't, either. It is rather reduced, yes, but sometimes, her brain will suddenly realize she hasn't been breathing and kick up an alarm as if she's suffocating. It makes her draw a few gasping breaths, the oxygen doing nothing for her body whatsoever, yet Cosima's brain usually calms down after that, once it's been sufficiently tricked into believing that she's doing something for her continued survival.

"A little over half a year," Delphine finally answers, her voice strangely soft, and Cosima feels her eyes bulge in surprise.

Six months. That's basically nothing, when considering their lifespans, and the age she estimates Delphine to be. It makes sense, then, for Delphine to still have her French accent. For it to still be so pronounced when she speaks.

And now Cosima really wants to know that story. Wants to know, what made Delphine leave France and her Coven. But at the same time, she doesn't want to potentially re-open old wounds. If Delphine didn't leave on her own volition, which Cosima is starting to suspect, she doesn't want to remind the other woman of what went down.

Still, she can't keep herself from asking at least one more question.

"Were you, living with a Coven? Before you came here?"

"Yes and no," the French vampire sighs. "I was, transitioning out, in a way, I suppose," she elaborates. "We had a rather big influx of new faces, and that kind of ruined it, for me," Delphine frowns. "I was looking for stability, and the place that used to be that, for me, suddenly wasn't any more. It felt like I was on shifting ground. And I did not care for that feeling very much," she says, crinkling her nose.

"Yeah, stuff like that sucks," Cosima nods empathetically. She remembers a period when it seemed like her old Coven was overrun with new bats, and she understands what Delphine means. The 'shifting ground' feeling hadn't been one Cosima particularly enjoyed, either.

"Plus, having to continuously prove yourself and fight for your spot, that was probably not too great, either."

"I didn't have that problem a lot," Delphine shakes her head, eyes glinting mischievously. "Then again, that may have been due to my closeness to Vincent," she muses, cocking her head slightly.

"Your Elder?"

"Oui," Delphine confirms. "I miss him," she admits, her voice barely audible as she lowers her gaze. "He used to let me curl up with him whenever I had trouble sleeping. He'd read to me, or play an old record, anything to calm me down. I miss his voice," she sighs. "I miss him reading Rousseau, or Baudelaire, or sometimes even Sartre."

"Not science books?" Cosima teases, in an effort to lighten the mood a little. She hadn't meant to sadden the blonde, to poke at something painful for her. She'd just been curious, and asked before she could have thought better of it.

"Non," Delphine laughs. "Science always, engages my brain. I wouldn't be able to fall asleep to someone reading research or something like that. I would be trying to follow along and pick it apart, would be trying to look for new theories and how they fit in with what we already know and has been proven true..." she trails off. Cosima hears a heavy sigh leave the woman, a wistful expression crossing her face before she straightens.

"We should probably get back to work," she remarks and Cosima swallows thickly before she nods.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the late update, i took the 28th off and then yesterday i just completely forgot about posting. sorry!

She enjoys working with Delphine, Cosima finds. Over the passing weeks, she realizes that the two of them, they click in a very productive and pleasant way. The blonde has an active brain, is highly intelligent and possesses a quick wit. She knows what she is doing, what she's talking about. Understands the science side of things. And more recently, over the past few days, Cosima has found that Delphine also has a rather amusing sense of humor. One that Cosima has come to enjoy.

Now, inviting Delphine over to her place, that had been a sort of, spur of the moment kind of decision.

Cosima is usually very guarded, about who she lets into her private life. Living without the protection of a Coven does that. She's the only one looking out for herself right now, the only one who would be fighting any possible attackers, so she tends to stick to erring on the side of caution. She can count on one hand the number of people who even know where she lives, never mind those that have actually been in her apartment.

Not that vampires need an actual invitation inside. It's one of the pop culture myths, just like them hating signs of religion and being unable to cross flowing streams of water. They can enter any building they please, provided they don’t have a malicious intent towards any humans residing there, and jump over any river they'd like to. Now religion, that is a bit complicated. Most of them, especially the older ones, they're not fans of it. Despise religious practices and abhor human preachers to the point when there have been campaigns in the past where vampires openly hunted them. Not because they were afraid of any physical damage holy objects might cause them, but because they've seen how religion can be used to suppress free thinking and learning and freedom in general.

Cosima inviting Delphine happened on the heel of a conversation they were having at Dyad. They'd gotten stuck discussing a tangent of a research study, and Cosima had felt kind of, sad, about just saying goodbye. So she'd decided to ask Delphine, if she wanted to maybe continue that discussion at her place.

Cosima slides the key into her lock and opens the door, motioning for Delphine to step inside, before she follows her and closes the door behind them. The brunette tosses her key onto the sideboard by the door and starts taking off her jacket while Delphine slowly turns, taking in the space.

"What?" Cosima asks with a soft laugh, causing the blonde to quickly shake her head.

"Nothing," Delphine says as they continue into the apartment. "It is, very you," she adds after a moment.

"Thank you?" the American frowns and watches as Delphine runs her hand over the back of the couch. As she continues to take in Cosima's apartment, the brunette finds herself watching the blonde.

This is actually the first time she sees her outside the Institute. Outside of the professional setting of Dyad and all those rules and restrictions that come with that. She looks, more relaxed, actually. Her shoulder seem to have lost some tension that Cosima hadn't even realized Delphine was holding in her body. Seems alert, as well, taking in her surroundings.

"Oh, you have a player!" Delphine exclaims and hurries over the record player Cosima has in the corner. The blonde pauses, taking in the cabinet with the glass doors next to it, filled with Cosima's record collection.

"May I?" the blonde asks as Cosima joins her, her voice suddenly shy. Cosima waves her on, and the blonde opens the doors to start browsing Cosima's collection, an expression of sheer glee on his face.

"You really like music, huh?" Cosima says as she takes Delphine in. She wouldn't have guessed that, didn't suspect this one bit. It's a genuine surprise, and a pleasant one at that.

"Yes," Delphine nods, "very much so." She reaches out to run her fingers over the spine of a sleeve before she gives a small shake of her head. "I used to go to l'opera, with my family, when I was still human. It's how Vincent's sire found me," she explains, voice soft. "Vincent, he indulged me, after I received the Gift. He would take me out every other week, to see a play or opera. At times, it probably was the only thing that made me leave the house."

"So you're more into old time stuff?" Cosima concludes.

"Not necessarily," the French vampire shakes her head, curls bouncing. "I like Beethoven, and Brahms, and Rachmaninoff. But there is other stuff, as well."

"For some reason, I can't imagine you rocking out to the Stones, or the Beatles," Cosima snickers, her amusement only growing when Delphine grimaces.

"I never understood the obsession with those pests," she shakes her head, then regards Cosima with interest. "Do you like them?" she inquires.

"They're alright, I guess," Cosima shrugs. Shifts, then leans in to look at her records. Reaches out and picks one.

"Here," she says and hands it to Delphine. "Put this on. Tell me what you think," she prompts her, trusting the blonde to know how to work a record player.

"_Hooverphonic_?" Delphine reads, her nose wrinkling. "I don't think I ever heard of them," she shakes her head before she carefully gets the vinyl from the sleeve and puts it on the player. She turns it on then, and carefully touches the needle to it.

Cosima watches as Delphine tilts her head slightly, listening, waiting for the music to start. Once it does, the French woman closes her eyes, music drifting from the player, a sort of melancholic tune wafting from it, accompanied by the voice of a woman.

"Trippy," Delphine says, after a while. Cosima reaches out, ready to lift the needle to stop the music and find something else, but Delphine's finger close around her wrist, the touch gentle, but stilling her movement nonetheless.

"I didn't say I dislike it," she points out, and Cosima arches a brow at her.

"You don't?" she challenges.

"It seems like an acquired taste," Delphine allows, her brows furrowing, the small line between them appearing again. "But I like the way it, vibrates, in my chest," she adds with a soft smile and moves the needle back to play it again, Cosima watching her with interest.

She tells Delphine to have a look at her collection, see if she wants to try anything else, and then leaves her for the kitchen. Grabs two mugs, and fills both with blood, before popping the blonde's in the microwave to heat it up for her.

When she returns, Delphine is changing the record to another. Her face breaks into a bright smile when Cosima offers her her mug, and she accepts it with a nod.

"Thank you," she murmurs and takes a sip, a humm leaving her.

"What are we listening to?" Cosima asks as she leans against the back of her couch, watching the blonde.

"Did you know that you have Degtyarev in there?" Delphine asks as the needle touches the black vinyl, the first notes of the piece drifting from the player.

"Degtie-who?" Cosima frowns. "Hopefully he didn't find it too crammed," she adds at Delphine's look.

"Stepan Degtyarev. He was a Russian composer, late eighteenth century. I don't think he's very well known, so I was surprised to find him in your collection," the blonde explains.

"Yeah, no idea who he is," she shrugs. "Though I remember this having been a gift," she nods towards the player, where the record spins on and on, music filling the room. "I didn't know he was into obscure composers, though," she frowns.

Gregory gave it to her, for some flimsy excuse for a reason. He'd been one of the young vampires at her Coven, and deeply infatuated with her. She'd tried to be nice, about the whole thing, seeing as it's not that uncommon for young bats to develop an unhealthy attachment with another vampire, sometimes crossing the line into obsession. But when he hadn't gotten the message after she'd snarled at him, Cosima had actually resorted to striking him, slashing at his face until she drew blood. The shock of that took care of whatever feelings he'd harbored for her, and he started avoiding her after. It was kind of an unpleasant experience, for everyone, really. She mostly kept the records as a reminder of why she ended up leaving Coven life behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the song they talk about is [Circles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex1lz4n95EI) by Hooverphonic. idk if a vinyl of the song exists, i just like it, a lot.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cosima visits Delphine's apartment for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> content warning for references to World War II

She changed her last name, over the decades, but always kept it as close as possible, to its German roots.

Which is strange, because she doesn't consider herself German any more. Thinks of herself as American, really. Or at least a member of the North American Alliance, under its protection. Then again, most vampires, they are kind of, stateless, in a way. Hard not to be, when the country you were born in changes so much you hardly recognize it any more, after centuries on this planet.

Cosima used to live in Europe. In what's now Germany. Her family was German, they spoke German at home, though it's a far cry from what the language now is. Honestly, Cosima herself hasn't spoken German in, decades. Almost a century, actually.

It's a startling realization, one she makes when she finds a book on Delphine's shelf that she used to own, as well.

"Stifter?" she asks and holds it up. The blonde tilts her head slightly and crosses her arms.

"I tried to learn German. Vincent thought that getting me books and finding authors I liked in their original language would motivate me more. It wasn't that big a success," she admits.

Cosima watches as Delphine runs a hand through her hair, the motion jerky and stiff with tension. She's been on edge, ever since she let Cosima into her apartment. Though Cosima isn't entirely sure why that is.

Granted, they can be rather territorial creatures. Hence why she never asked to see Delphine's place herself. If the blonde hadn't invited her, Cosima wouldn't have brought it up.

Maybe the French vampire thought that she had to return the gesture, after having been in Cosima's home. Of course, the brunette hadn't expected anything in return. She'd just wanted to spend more time, with Delphine. Had wanted to get to know her, outside of Dyad.

And when Delphine had asked her after work, if Cosima wanted to join her for a glass of wine at her own home, she'd seemed, happy, at the prospect. Like she was looking forward to it. Cosima wouldn't have agreed if she'd gotten the feeling that Delphine was uncomfortable, so this, it's a rather strange development.

"Who did you speak German with?" Cosima asks her, tilting her head with some amusement as she tries to picture Delphine making conversation in another language. Coming to think of it, she hasn't even heard her really speak French, yet. A word here and there, a phrase that doesn't translate into English, but nothing longer than that. It makes her wonder, what it would sound like.

"It turned out to be rather useful," Delphine says, jaw working for a moment. "Apparently, luring Nazis is a lot easier when you speak their language."

Cosima's eyes widen in surprise.

"Shit," she breathes and reaches up to hit herself on the forehead. Of course. How come she hadn't considered this? Granted, human wars, they tend to stick to the peripherals of their lives. At least the lives of the North American Covens, really. But Delphine, she's from Europe, from France. Territory that was directly touched by human machinations of war, by their hubris.

"I'm, so sorry. I didn't... Wow," Cosima murmurs. "So you were like, what? The secret weapon of the Resistance?" she asks in an attempt to lighten the mood somewhat. Delphine merely arches an eyebrow at her, before she lets out a soft sigh.

"I wish," the French woman murmurs and walks over to join Cosima. She carefully takes the book from Cosima's hands and runs her fingers over the cover, a wistful expression crossing her features, until she gives a shake of her head. And places the book back down on its shelf.

"Truth be told, our Elder was more in favor of the Germans," she admits, and Cosima feels her face darken.

"Why?" she frowns. "I mean, aside from what they obviously stood for, they invaded your country. Your city. They were smashing everything to pieces, killing so many people-"

"Exactly," Delphine nods, a cruel smile tugging on her lips. "Where war is raging, people don't pay too much attention to one more body," she reminds Cosima.

"Ah," the brunette mutters, shoulders drooping. That's true, she's well aware of it. Vampires, and werewolves for that matter, they tend to do better in areas where crime is a normal occurrence. People ask less questions that way. It's depressing, really. How human society will turn its back on parts of their own, sometimes its weakest members. Even if a vampire lives outside of a Coven, they are still protected by the Alliance. If they die, someone will mourn them, and look into it. They don't have to be afraid that their deaths will be brushed off. Unless, of course, they've started killing and living outside the Law, in which case Cosima tends to feel like they've brought it on themselves, really.

But humans, they don't really care for others, it seems. They sometimes won't notice that dozens of people have gone missing from the same area, until the bodies really start piling up. Or someone makes a mistake and goes after a human that actually did have some family left behind, someone to care about them.

The American vampire shakes her head in an attempt to clear it of these thoughts. Humans can be depressing, but she's not an anthropologist, she doesn't have to understand them beyond the rules that are set up to keep them from going all murder spree on the supernaturals living in their midst.

Slowly, she crosses the room and sinks down onto Delphine's couch. Rubs her hands over her thighs as she grapples for something to say.

"Did I ever tell you," she frowns, "that I used to sleep in a coffin?" she asks and hears Delphine snicker.

"Did you now?" she responds and joins Cosima. Sits down next to her, her body language slowly relaxing. "Actually, I can see it," she adds, tilting her head a little.

"Yeah," Cosima nods. "I thought it was, funny," she shrugs. "You know, following the stereotype that vampires have to spend the whole day in a coffin."

"Hm," Delphine hums, nose crinkling. "I never really understood, where that came from. Is it because technically, we are dead?" she muses.

"Maybe?" Cosima shrugs. "Perhaps, centuries, millennia ago, when vampires were new, as a species I mean, perhaps the transformation took longer, then? And people mistook us for corpses, before we woke up?"

"Huh," Delphine frowns. "I got turned centuries ago. In the eighteenth century, there was no, 'mistaken for dead'," she shakes her head.

"Really?" Cosima breathes, her brown eyes widening. "Me, too. I mean, I got bitten... gosh, in 1733? I think?" she frowns, trying to remember. She should know this. It was the thirties, definitely. But the details have grown all fuzzy, and it was the middle of winter. She finds it difficult to recall, if it was before Christmas, or after. Over the distance of centuries, it is hard to keep track of events in a linear fashion.

"1729," Delphine says, a strange softness to her voice. "I felt so, stupid, for years after," she admits with a sigh. "I should have known better. I knew better," she shakes her head. "But still, when he offered his hand, I went with Leopold."

"Maybe he, pulled you under?" Cosima offers weakly.

"Non," the blonde shakes her head decisively. "I mean, I know that humans, they are drawn to us more than usual. For whatever reason that may be. It seems to fly in the face of what we know, of predator-prey relationships. They should be avoiding us for all intents and purposes, but they don't..." Delphine trails off. "But Leopold, he never influenced people. Well, aside from those he wanted to feed off of, of course. But when he wanted to Gift someone, he made it a point to have them come with him willingly," she explains, letting a shuddering breath leave her and subsequently, surprising Cosima yet again.

"I, was an accident," she tells Delphine. Watches, as her eyes widen in surprise while she stares at Cosima, causing the brunette to give a small shrug. "He didn't expect me to fight back as much as I did. I bit his hand hard enough to draw blood, and that was enough to do it," she tells her.

"I'm sorry," Delphine breathes, but Cosima waves her off.

"Oh, it's fine," she tells her. "I mean, sure, he didn't plan on turning me, and his Coven kind of did kick his ass. But he was nice, to me, and they came around pretty fast, as well. My irresistible charm convinced them to keep me," Cosima grins at her, and feels relieved when she hears Delphine let out a soft laugh.

"Yes, centuries old vampires always fall for the newly turned batlings," she teases. "It's the whole 'protect the baby' instinct."

"Hey!" Cosima huffs in indignation. "I am not that small," she grumbles and crosses her arms to feign sulking.

The way she became a vampire, it's kind of a sore spot. There aren't many 'accidents' like her. Usually, they are humans who played a trick on a vampire, getting them to turn them when they didn't mean to do it. So whenever the topic arises, Cosima feels like she has to prove that she's not one of those vampires, that she didn't gain her status by some illegitimate means. She'd just been a young woman, terrified out of her mind and fighting for her life. She hadn't even really believed that vampires were real, before that encounter, which changed her mind rather fast.

"Non," Delphine says, brows dipping as she lets her eyes travel down Cosima's body. "You were probably above average height, as a human for that period," she muses.

"Exactly!" she exclaims. "You must've been like, freakishly tall, back then," she adds. Delphine shrugs and reaches up to brush her hair behind her ear as Cosima watches her. Tries to imagine her in garments of their period, tries to imagine what she would have looked like back then. Going to the opera, the way she speaks of her past, it makes the brunette think that Delphine came from a family with some money. The French vampire in a lavish ball gown, now that is an image...

"Do you have like, a favorite period?" Delphine interrupts Cosima's thoughts. It makes her frown briefly, before she shakes her head a little and tries to think.

"Not really," she answers, after giving it some thought. "Though, being here, I kind of liked the sixties? Like, Civil Rights Movement, all of that. It was kind of an exciting time. Just, seeing humans fight against the constraints of their society and its rules, that's always fascinating. But in a way, I think I may be most comfortable now," she allows.

"Really?" Delphine teases, a spark in her eyes that makes Cosima roll hers.

"Really," she insists. "I mean, look at them. Look at where they came from, like, from the forties. So much positive change, so much more acceptance..."

"One might argue that they are on the way back to the forties," Delphine frowns.

"Are you always such a pessimist?" Cosima sighs dramatically.

"Non," the other vampire shakes her head. "But I have lived in Europe when they saw fit to try to burn it to the ground with two wars within half a century," Delphine reminds her. "It can be difficult, to see them as anything else than idiots hellbent on destruction when you've experienced the horrors of modern warfare."

Cosima draws a deep breath, not sure what she's supposed to say.

"Hey, can I see your music collection?" she asks Delphine, completely changing the topic. The other woman frowns at her, before she nods.

"Sure," she says and goes to open her cabinet. Cosima quickly bounds over, taking in the rows of records stacked there.

"Anything you'd want me to listen to?" Cosima asks her as her eyes scan the backs of the sleeves, taking note of records she has herself, some of which surprise Cosima to find in Delphine's collection as well.

"Non," Delphine shakes her head. "You're free to chose," she tells her, bumping Cosima's shoulder with her arm and tearing a small laugh from the brunette at the gesture.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A movie night, a breakthrough, and something that may very well turn out to be a grave mistake on Cosima's part.

"You look absolutely ridiculous."

Cosima lifts her head a little to arch an eyebrow at Delphine, before she lowers it again.

She's upside down on her couch, holding a blood bag with a straw so she can drink comfortably. Delphine has curled up in the corner, cradling a glass of wine mixed with blood. Cosima suggested it to her, on the condition that she'd have to drink it cold, and the French woman had let out a dramatic sigh before agreeing to try it. Apparently, she finds it tolerable.

"Thank you," Cosima nods before she lowers her head again.

"You can't even see your TV!" Delphine laughs as she gestures at the plasma screen, where her pick for the night is playing.

"Already saw it," Cosima shrugs. Or at least attempts to. "Three times," she adds after a beat.

"Cosima!" her guest exclaims and reaches out to pause the movie. "Why didn't you say something? We could have put on something else-"

"It was your turn to pick," she reminds Delphine. And then slowly turns around again, sitting semi-properly on her couch. "Besides, you looked kind of excited, about watching it."

"Still," Delphine shakes her head. "You should have told me. There are hundreds of movies we could have watched, it didn't have to be _The Daughter of Dr. Jekyll_."

"Alright, next time I will chose something you've already seen, okay?" Cosima rolls her eyes. She’s pretty certain that there will be a next time. After all, Delphine and her have been doing these kinds of movie dates for a while now. Ever since Delphine discovered that Cosima is kind of into movies. It’s not that common, for vampires as old as them. As if enjoying new technology somehow is a betrayal to their kind, their ‘ancient ways’. If you ask her, it’s completely ridiculous. If they don’t make use of advancements in science and technology, then they’ll end up being living fossils, will become obsolete. She gets that some of this stuff, it can be kind of frightening, but really, electricity has been around for how long now? Time for some of the more stubborn members of their species to get with the program.

"Do you want to finish it?" she asks, motioning towards the TV and the movie frozen on it.

"Non," Delphine slowly shakes her head. "Not because I feel guilty, but it is getting early," she adds at Cosima's look. "I'd rather be home when the sun comes up."

"You can always crash here," Cosima offers, spreading her hands. "I won't make you sleep in a coffin, even."

That makes Delphine let out a laugh, something Cosima will admit she has been aiming for a lot, recently. She just likes the way it sounds, and how it makes the blonde’s eyes light up in amusement.

"Do you even have one here?" she chuckles and Cosima waggles her brows at her.

"You may have to spend the day, to find out," she grins, her tongue poking at the back of her teeth. To her surprise, Delphine watches her, an intense look in her eyes.

"I may take you up, on the offer. One day," she says after a heavy pauses.

"Anytime you'd like," Cosima replies and spreads her hands in what she hopes is an inviting gesture. Hopes that her sudden nerves aren't showing.

* * *

She used to pray, when she was still alive. Did it every day. Grace before meals, daily nighttime prayer, as well. Something her mother insisted on, something she raised her children with. Even once she was grown, Cosima didn’t consider stopping. It was only after she was Gifted that the routine died off. It had just been too weird, saying Grace when you were tearing into someone else’s neck.

That’s not to say she didn’t keep up with the nighttime prayers. It took a long time for her to stop those. Almost three hundred years later, Cosima isn’t entirely sure what she prayed for, those nights. Those first couple of years as a vampire. Perhaps she asked for someone to reverse what, back then, had very much felt like a curse. Perhaps she’d cursed and asked for vengeance, for revenge. Asked for God to strike down who had done this to her.

She doesn’t pray any more, now. Avoids the Church and organized religion, really. It no longer brings her any solace. No longer makes sense. Especially not with the progress that science has made the past century. The amount of questions that can now be answered by logic and science. They now have access to so much knowledge and resources and no longer have to fall back onto blind faith to explain phenomenons that didn’t use to make sense.

But watching the plasma monitor now, the feed from the microscope, she comes close to praying.

The past six weeks have been her and Delphine pouring over this. Trying to recreate the success Dyad had with finding something to protect them from the toxic effects of UV exposure. It’s proven quite tricky. To the point where Cosima was starting to think that their previous success had merely been a fluke. A happy accident.

She puts her glasses back down onto her nose and tilts her head. Watches the cells on the screen, soaking in the solution.

“Ready?” Delphine asks and Cosima swallows, before she nods. The blonde draws a deep breath before flicking on the small UV lamp. Takes a step back, to be better able to see the monitor and watch what happens to the cells.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Cosima’s eyes stray to the clock. Fifteen seconds. Thirty. A minute. And still, nothing. Two minutes, and the cells still look fine.

Next to her, she hears Delphine let out a loud, ragged breath. At three minutes, she reaches out and kills the UV light. Takes off her safety glasses and her gloves, a soft laugh escaping her. Cosima can feel a grin spreading across her own face, elation taking hold of her.

They did it. They actually did it! They managed, after over thirty failed attempts, to finally replicate the previous exposure, without damage to the cells. Three minutes in UV light and the cells were still fine. For them, that feels like an eternity. It’s been centuries since Cosima was last out in the sunlight. If this, if this cure they have been working on, if it really works, it would be, huge, for their entire species. They would be able to go out during the day again. Would no longer be confined to the dark and artificial light.

She turns to grin at Delphine, who shakes her head. Cosima arches an eyebrow and then goes in for a hug. Feels the blonde stiffen in her arms, for a moment, before she relaxes, and hugs her back.

Cosima allows a low laugh to escape her.

“We did it,” she hears Delphine whisper. And suddenly feels herself being lifted up, her feet leaving the ground, and the brunette lets out a surprised squeal.

Delphine sets her down again and leans back, her cheeks coloring prettily as she smiles shyly at Cosima.

“Sorry,” she murmurs, ducking her head in embarrassment.

Cosima quickly shakes her head and squeezes the blonde’s arms.

“Don’t worry about it,” she grins at her.

“I guess I got, excited, and-”

She doesn’t get any further than that. On an impulse, Cosima leans up, and presses her lips against Delphine’s, kissing her.

Delphine’s eyes go wide with shocked surprise and she tenses, her arms falling away from around Cosima. The brunette pulls back, her brows dipping in confusion. She could have sworn- Well, okay, Delphine never mentioned relationships. Never spoke about sexual encounters, either. But Cosima, she checked her Dyad file. Out of pure curiosity, of course. She’d just wanted to know, how much information they have, and how much she’d be able to access, as well. Wanted to see, what her security clearance was worth, so to speak.

She saw that, before she completely switched over to blood bags, Delphine’s last couple of victims she fed off were all female. Given her age and stature and looks, Cosima would have bet money that the blonde used the hook-up lure, instead of the ‘help me I’m in need’ one. Apparently, she was wrong. Very wrong indeed, judging by the tremendous blush coloring the blonde’s cheeks and the way she is avoiding Cosima’s eyes.

“Gosh,” she mutters, reaching up to push her glasses back up as her heart gives a painful jolt. “I’m, I’m really sorry, Delphine,” she apologizes, letting go of the taller woman and taking a step back from her. And then another, and another, for good measure.

“I just… I guess I got, swept up, in the excitement, and… I’m honestly really sorry.”

“Non, please,” Delphine murmurs, ducking her head before she shakes it. Waves Cosima off. “It’s fine. No harm done,” she declares and forces a smile. Cosima can see the tips of her fangs peeking out from beneath her lip as she does. They haven’t extended much, and don’t seem to be growing now. Cosima hopes that it’s just an automatic response, a product of the French woman’s surprise. Hopes that she is not fighting down an aggressive response, right now. The urge to put Cosima in her place, to remind her of where she stands, in the hierarchy.

“I really am sorry, Delphine,” she repeats, feeling her heart constrict painfully when she sees the blonde’s jaw muscle work.

“It’s okay,” Delphine mutters, looking away. She reaches up to pinch the bridge of her nose before turning towards the computer. Hits print and makes the printer whir to life at the other side of the room.

Cosima watches her walk over, taking a longer route around one of the lab tables, instead of the shorter one. That one would have meant turning her back to Cosima, though, something the French scientist apparently doesn’t feel like doing, right now. Which, she gets it. If someone had just thrown themselves at her against her will, Cosima wouldn’t want to turn her back on them, either, lest they try again.

She’s so, stupid. She should have known. Should have realized that Delphine… that she doesn’t care for her, like that. That this weird energy between them, this charged atmosphere of the last couple of weeks, that it was just a product of them being so close, in hierarchy. It’s certainly happened before, Cosima thinks. It’s their instinct to mark their places, make it stick, dominating the other party. And sex can be a great tool, for that. That’s why some dogs will hump everything in sight. It’s kind of, similar to that.

She lets out a soft sigh and rubs a hand over her forehead.

“Delphine-”

“I have to take this, to Aldous,” the blonde cuts off a fresh attempt at apologizing, at explaining. Cosima bites back a comment and swallows instead.

“Right,” she nods. “I’ll, uh… I’ll, clean this up?” she offers, gesturing towards the table, the experiment and equipment.

Delphine’s eyes flicker over and Cosima sees them widen, as if in surprise that the experiment is still set up. The blonde inclines her head, frowning down at the papers she printed, the data that she’ll show their boss.

“That would be, great,” she finally says and Cosima forces a grin.

“Sure thing,” she nods and goes to grab a fresh set of gloves. Delphine takes a step aside, to avoid brushing against her even by accident. It stings, the realization of just how uncomfortable Cosima’s lapse has made the blonde vampire around her.

“I’ll, uh… I’ll be back,” the French woman mutters before turning and leaving the lab, and Cosima grabs a stool before sinking down onto it with a frustrated groan.

“Stupid idiot,” she chastises herself with a sharp shake of her head as she throws her head back to stare at the ceiling, as if she’ll find the answers on how to fix this written on the white tiles.

* * *

Cosima stares morosely into her cup, biting back a sigh. She should be getting back to work. Should go back to the broom closet of an office she’s been calling her station for the past week or so. Ever since she made a very ill-calculated pass at Delphine.

She thought they were friends. Thought that they had gotten kind of close. Had hoped that she’d be able to salvage that friendship, with some deeply felt apologies and promises she’d never, ever come onto the blonde again, ever.

She’d apparently been mistaken. Delphine, after all, hasn’t spoken to her since that kiss. Has been avoiding her rather thoroughly, actually. Cosima tried to text, but her messages went unanswered, so she gave up after the second day.

Granted, she’d also been, kind of pissed, back then. Leekie had called her to his office, and the guy just really makes her hair stand on end. He’s older than her, though perhaps not that much more powerful. Cosima’s not entirely certain, she hasn’t tried to push him, and something tells her she’d be rather stupid to try, too. If Dyad decides that they no longer want her as their employee, Cosima’s pretty sure that the Institute will not simply fire her and let her walk out the front doors. Feels like they’d rather make use of her as a test subject and then dispose of her body, once she’s completely outlived her usefulness to them.

Leekie pulled her from the UV exposure project. He hadn’t said why. Had smiled at Cosima, exposing his canines, fangs extended partially, and told her that he’d like her brilliant mind on a research project centered around silver poisonings.

She hadn’t dared to argue. Had ducked her head and accepted the transfer. Her stuff had already been removed from the Lab and put up in the tiny office that Leekie had assigned her, a fact that hadn’t gone unnoticed by the brunette. It had seemed like they hadn’t wanted her to cross paths with Delphine again. Given how close the blonde is with Leekie, Cosima has come to the conclusion that it had been her idea. That she must have ratted her out, to Leekie. Must have told him, about the kiss, and how uncomfortable it had made her. Must have asked Leekie, to pull her off the project, and put her somewhere where Delphine wouldn’t have to work with her any more. Wouldn’t have to see her and deal with her.

It, sucks. She thought Delphine and her had a different sort of relationship. Thought that they were kind of close, even. She would have thought that it wouldn’t be as easy, for the European, to cut her off so completely, but apparently, Cosima had been sorely mistaken in that regard.

With a shake of her head, she picks up her mug and empties it. Reaches up to wipe her lips after, frowning at the smear of blood on her hand for a moment, before it seeps into her skin. Cosima sighs and takes the dirty mug over to the sink, leaving it there before she leaves the kitchen area to return to her work. More staring at horrifying pictures of poisoning victims, how marvelous!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know this one is a rather short one, sorry

To say she’s surprised would be the understatement of a decade. Cosima looks up at Delphine, the blonde’s fangs extended halfway, poking out between her lips, distorting her mouth.

The French woman’s hands are opening and clenching at her sides and her chest is moving with deep breaths. She looks rather, unhappy.

“I’m sorry?” she mutters and leans back in her chair.

Delphine shifts, looking away, the harsh golden glint of her eyes retreating somewhat, the natural color seeping back as Delphine regains some control.

“I have, spoken, with Aldous,” she spits, the sharpness of her words feeling almost like she’s physically struck Cosima. She can feel the pressure of Delphine’s presence crowding in her own mind, trying to establish dominance.

“O-kay?” she frowns, crossing her arms as she braces herself. To her surprise, Delphine suddenly lets out a sigh. She reaches up to pinch the bridge of her nose, the anger flowing from her frame and the pressure against Cosima’s mind letting up.

“I had no idea…” the blonde says with a shake of her head. “Cosima, I swear, I did not, I didn’t ask him, to do this.”

At that, her brows rise in surprise.

“Really?” she arches one as she stands herself, pushing her chair back as she frowns at Delphine. “Forgive me if I find that rather difficult to believe.”

The blonde’s hackles rise briefly, her eyes flashing golden, and Cosima feels her own fangs extend as her own lips pull back in a snarl. It’s been a shit couple of weeks, and she’ll be damned if she lets the reason for her solitary work confinement walk all over her.

To her surprise, Delphine blinks and tilts her head back, moving it to the side so her throat shows in a gesture of surrender. Her fangs retract slightly and Cosima can feel her own do the same in response as the white-hot anger in her gut starts to dissolve.

“You, surprised me,” Delphine murmurs, sinking slowly into the tiny chair in the corner of the joke that is Cosima’s office. She picks up the hem of her lab coat and toys with the edge before dropping it. “I didn’t know that, that you were…”

“That I’m gay?” Cosima offers with an arch of her brow. Watches Delphine nod mutely, the French vampire’s eyes closing for a moment as her facial features relax. Cosima isn’t sure but she thinks she sees a soft smile play on her lips, if only for the fraction of a moment.

“Well, it’s not anything new,” she shrugs. Delphine opens her eyes again, searching Cosima’s face.

“You’ve always been…”

“Attracted to the fairer sex?” Cosima supplies with a soft grin. “A freak? Deviant?” she adds, using the words that have been used against her in the past. “Perverted?”

“Cosima, please,” Delphine murmurs with a small shake of her head. “Don’t, don’t say that.”

“It’s not what I believe,” the brunette assures her. “But when you hear it hurled against you so many times you lose count, it’s hard not to let that affect you. Especially when someone you kiss practically runs from you and then you’re thrown into a dungeon after.”

“Okay,” Delphine nods. “I take your point. Though this is hardly a dungeon,” she says with a small chuckle.

“The work is torture, though,” Cosima replies as she sinks back into her own chair and hides her face in her hands. She hears the feet of Delphine’s chair scrape on the floor, hears her get up, but she’s too exhausted to move her hands. Doesn’t particularly care to look at the other woman right now.

So she listens to her movements. The soft rustle of fabric, the clicks of her heels on the floor as she rounds Cosima desk. Comes to stand next to her. A careful touch to her shoulder makes Cosima lower her hands finally. Makes her look over to find Delphine leaning with her butt against the desk, her back to the door mostly, body angled towards Cosima.

“I didn’t ask Aldous, to remove you from the project,” she tells her, meeting Cosima’s eyes. For once, there’s no resistance there when Cosima meets her gaze, and the brunette feels herself falling head-first into a slew of images, snippets of memories that pass her too quickly for Cosima to make any sense of them, before she finds herself in Leekie’s office.

_The angle is off, she’s way too tall as she stands in front of his desk while he reads over a file. It takes her a few seconds to realize that this is one of Delphine’s memories, that this is from her perspective, her height._

_“How is it going, with Cosima?” Leekie asks and Cosima swallows thickly, her blood rushing in her ears._

_“Fine.”_

_Her voice is high and coated in a soft French accent as she replies. Leekie looks up, searching her face, and Cosima’s hardens in preparation. She feels herself shut the doors of her mind, only it’s not really hers, but Delphine’s and this, this is making her very dizzy._

Suddenly, she’s thrown out of the memory, reaching for the desk to brace herself on it, to steady herself as the room spins around her. Cosima draws a shuddering breath, stomach turning, trying to bring up her lunch.

“I’m sorry,” she mutters, giving a weak cough before she wipes the back of her hand over her lips. Straightens and risks a glance at the blonde European vampire, whose hands have curled into hard fists.

“I didn’t mean to-”

“It’s okay,” Delphine cuts off her apology, the tension leaving her frame. “I know I wasn’t… It’s partially my fault. Just, in the future-”

“I won’t do it again,” Cosima assures her. She hadn’t meant to do it in the first place, anyway. Hadn’t wanted to invade Delphine’s mind. It’s just, it’s been so long since she came across anyone that had completely lowered their guard that it took her by surprise. She’d been too shocked to realize what was happening until she was already in the memory, invading Delphine’s mind without intending to.

“Good,” Delphine nods, standing again. She steps up to the desk and starts to push Cosima’s papers together. “Come on,” she declares with a decisive tone. “Let’s take your things and get out of here. You’re not spending another night shuttered away in this place. We’re taking your things up to the lab, where you’ll have your own desk from now on.”

“So I’m, I’m back to working with you?” Cosima asks, trying not to get her hopes up, but unable to completely prevent it from happening. She likes Delphine. A lot. But besides her personal attraction to the blonde, she also enjoys working in the lab. Likes working with Delphine, on the UV project. It was a lot better than what she’s been doing here, by herself, that’s for sure.

“Yes,” Delphine confirms with a soft smile. “We are back to working with each other.”

Cosima tries to bite back a happy grin, but knows she doesn’t fully succeed. She can feel the corners of her mouth tug into a soft smile and ducks her head in an attempt to hide it.

“Good,” she mutters, closing her laptop and bending to unplug the charger. “Because I cannot wait to get out of this shoebox.”

Her words make Delphine erupt into a soft giggle and Cosima is glad that the desk is hiding her face when she feels herself flush at the sound.


	8. Chapter 8

Delphine didn’t come into work. The whole night Cosima waited and waited, casting her eyes to the door of the lab every ten to fifteen minutes. But they never opened to allow the blonde inside. Delphine didn’t rush in, her curls a mess, a flush tingeing her pale cheeks, mumbling something about having overslept. The entire night she didn’t show, and anyone else Cosima tried to ask just shrugged and said they hadn’t seen her either.

Maybe going to the blonde’s place, it’s a little drastic. For all Cosima knows, she might just have taken the night off and not informed anyone else. Perhaps she spent their working hours with Leekie, on some crazy secret project, or something else entirely.

Or she could be hurt. Right now, Delphine could be laying in her apartment, in a pool of her own blood. She might have forgotten to draw the curtains yesterday and gotten severely burned. Someone could have tried to break into her apartment and disturbed her rest and tried to kill her before she woke. She’s a powerful vampire, sure, but that is at night, at the height of her power. Asleep, during the day? She’s vulnerable, and Cosima has spent the whole night coming up with all kinds of terrible scenarios that would have left Delphine weakened, injured, or even dead.

She reaches out to press her finger down onto the doorbell, waiting as it rings. Cosima’s eyes drift to the horizon, the soft orange glow that is creeping up, spreading into the darkness, chasing it back.

“Come on,” she muttered, hammering her finger down again. Hears the buzz of the intercom, signaling that it’s ringing, but no one answers. Cosima curses and slams her hand against the concrete, feeling it crumble beneath the heel of her palm.

She’ll never make it back to her place in time before full sunrise. And even if she did, she still doesn’t know what's going on with Delphine. The blonde vampire could be in serious need of help, right now, and she is here, on the doorstep of her apartment building, within reach. So close, yet so far.

Cosima takes a few steps back, glaring up the building’s front. There’s a fire escape at the back, but it leads into a closed back yard, and she’s not getting in.

The brunette is just about ready to fold and start running to look for shelter, a place where she can wait out the day and sun, when the door to the building opens, a man leaving it. She races up the steps again, deflecting his gaze, and slips past him and inside the complex. Hears the door fall shut behind her loudly.

“Alright,” Cosima nods, heading for the stairs to climb up to Delphine’s floor, bracing herself for what she might find.

The door of the blonde’s apartment is closed and locked, but a sharp twist of the knob and Cosima can hear the sound of the mechanism breaking. She carefully opens it, her phone in her free hand, ready to call 911.

There are no signs of forced entry. Delphine’s place is as clean and tidy as it had been the last time Cosima was over. The TV is on, the volume turned almost all the way down while the news plays. Too low for human hearing, but enough for a vampire to be able to understand. Cosima hesitates, but then decides to leave it on. Maybe Delphine is just, getting ready for bed.

But even if she were in the shower, she would have heard Cosima come in. It wasn’t exactly a quiet entry, not by vampire standards. A human might not have noticed, but Delphine, or any other vampire that might be here, they certainly would have.

Cosima pauses and listens. Strains to hear any other sounds, in the apartment, besides the rushing of her own blood and the news program.

“Delphine?” she finally calls out, flinching at the sudden loudness of her own voice in the space. Cosima turns and closes the door, making a mental note to pay for the repair, whatever it might cost.

Nothing. The apartment lies silent and Cosima tilts her head back to glare at the ceiling in frustration.

“Great,” she mumbles as she stomps a foot in frustration. She shakes her head and makes her way to the kitchen, no longer trying to be quiet. If someone else is here, they’re staying very still, so Cosima can’t hear their movements. Too still, really. She’s pretty certain she’s actually alone, that the apartment is empty.

Her suspicions are confirmed when she finds the fridge, usually stocked with blood, empty. So Delphine left. For whatever reason, she abandoned her place, her work, and just took of. Probably fucked all the way off to France, back to her old Coven. Perhaps the blonde realized how much she actually misses them and decided to go back.

Cosima shakes her head at her own idiocy, taking off her light fall jacket on her way to the bedroom. She’ll take a nice shower and then spent the day sleeping in Delphine’s nice expensive sheets. Come tonight, she could try calling the blonde’s phone one last time, before giving up on contacting her forever.

She’s barely crossed the threshold of Delphine’s bedroom when her eyes land on the curled up figure beneath the soft blanket and Cosima drops her jacket and phone, racing over to the bed. She reaches out to brush Delphine’s curls back from her neck to check for a pulse, and jerks back her hand at the hotness of the blonde’s skin.

“Shit,” Cosima breathes, looking around frantically. Her eyes land on a half-finished mug of blood on the bedside table and she forces herself to lean over, taking a whiff.

It’s old, must have been out for over a day. Probably Delphine’s last meal from the other night, before she went to bed. There’s a book on the floor, she probably planned on reading befor sleep and fell asleep, or rather, unconscious.

“Shit,” Cosima repeats, louder this time. She pulls back and runs to the bathroom, turning on the water and grabbing a towel to hold it under the icy stream. She needs to get Delphine’s temperature down, she thinks, hurrying back and placing the cold wet towel on her forehead before she goes to grab more.

“Sorry,” Cosima mumbles an apology as she tears away the blonde’s loose tank top and covers her torso in a wet towel as well, hoping to calm whatever sickness is ravaging her system.

“Come on,” she murmurs, tapping Delphine’s cheek. “Delphine, hey, wake up. Time to open your eyes.”

The blonde’s brows twitch as Cosima cradles her head and her eyelids flutter weakly.

“Yeah, come on. Eyes wide open, Delphine,” Cosima tries to encourage her, but the blonde just seems too weak to manage. Which is not that much of a surprise, really, given how long she’s probably been without food, and whatever sickness her body is trying to fight off currently.

“Okay, okay,” Cosima mutters, leaning back to pull at her hair. “Lemme, let me think,” she frowns as Delphine lets out a soft breath, the weakest attempt at a cough spilling from her lips. Cosima closes her eyes, hands curling into fists when she realizes that there’s probably only one way to save the other woman.

“Please don’t hate me for this,” she whispers, brushing Delphine’s curls back from her face tenderly before she leaves her. Grabs a measuring cup from the blonde’s kitchen cupboard and takes the stairs one floor down.

Cosima slowly walks the hallway, ears straining for signs of life behind the doors. A child on the first, throwing a tantrum over their breakfast cereal. Pass. The newscaster behind the next door, droning on and on while a coffee maker whirrs. Pass. Nothing behind the next, and a shower behind the one after that. Pass, pass.

The din of an old sitcom behind the last door on the left. Sizzling of a pan, a fan whirring softly. Maybe? Cosima swallows and nods, raising her hand to knock loudly.

The woman that opens the door seems to be in her early sixties. Her graying her is twisted up and held at the back of her neck with a hairclip as she holds her robe closed.

“Yes?” she asks, frowning at Cosima’s unfamiliar face as the security chain strains to keep the door from opening further.

“Hi,” Cosima greets her with a soft smile and holds up the empty measuring cup. “I, uh, I crashed, at my friend’s place last night, and I wanted to thank her for taking me in, you know? Make her some waffles. Only problem is, she’s out of flour.”

“Huh,” the woman frowns, eyes darting between Cosima face and the measuring cup, before she lets out a sigh. “Alright,” she nods and closes the door, and Cosima lets out a relieved breath when she hears the chain slide free before the woman opens the door wide to allow her in.

“How much do you need?” she asks her, already on her way to the kitchen, and Cosima pauses, glaring down at the threshold. Dammit.

“Uh, about, half a cup?” she tries, cursing herself for not checking how much a recipe would need.

“Only?” the woman asks, sounding surprised. “Oh, stop that, do come in,” she adds and Cosima takes a stumbling step forward as the resistance in the doorway lets up. She shakes herself off and makes her way to the kitchen, where the woman is rummaging around her cupboards.

“Now, are you certain that you really only need half a cup?” she asks as she turns to face Cosima again, the bag of flour falling from her fingers when she sees the expression in the brunette's face.

“Uh-uh,” Cosima shakes her head, reaching out to stifle the woman’s scream, muffling it with her palm. “Don’t,” she tells her, keeping her voice low. “It won’t help you,” she informs her with a sad sigh before meeting the woman’s eyes, preparing herself mentally for the compelling words.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the very late update! personal life right now is, chaotic, to say the least. i'll try to get another one up tomorrow or saturday to keep with the "2 chapters per week" thing.

At least it wasn’t a neighbor that Delphine had been fond of. That doesn’t mean the blonde’s not upset about the whole thing. The mess she made, feeding off the poor woman. The way she just threw herself at her, latched on and refused to let go again, until she’d been completely drained.

It hadn't been a pretty sight, Cosima’s willing to admit that. She’s rarely seen vampires on the brink of death, never seen one feed that was so close to it. The fresh blood helped, though. Enough that Cosima could call the Institute without fear of losing Delphine in the time it would take for them to come over.

Their immune systems are, weird. Cosima knows that. Knows that, if one of the people they feed on is currently sick and they don’t get more blood with the necessary antibodies, it can seriously mess with them. Normal bugs can’t get to them, it has to be transmitted via the blood they ingest. Funnily enough, HIV can’t get a foothold in their systems, though. Something about their metabolism that wipes it out effectively. Other stuff, though? Not pleasant.

Whatever the donor Delphine’s last meal came from had, Cosima’s pretty sure that it ended up being nearly fatal to the human, as well. After all, it took Delphine five days, in the medical wing, to even begin to be able to fight this, and that was with a string of fresh donations every other hour.

That’s the rub. The blood, to treat them when they’re this sick, it has to be fresh. Has to come from a living source, and cannot be preserved. Needs to go directly from donor to, recipient.

They let her feed herself two more times. Cosima saw the second one, after, getting transfusions in the medical wing. She doesn’t think the other one made it, Delphine’s instinct to survive too strong to be interrupted that early on in her healing process. Cosima saw the work she made of her neighbor, it doesn’t really surprise her. Saw the feral expression in her golden eyes, the desperation in her snarl as she’d clamped down on the woman’s neck and drank and refused to let go, even when Cosima asked her to, begged her to.

Leekie’s, not happy. Neither is Delphine. She’ll have to move. The disappearance of a human in a building a vampire also lives in, that’s an issue. The police already came to her place, asked her questions, poked around a bunch. Thankfully, Delphine didn’t have that many interactions with the woman, only when they saw each other at the mailboxes, or while doing laundry or passed each other in the hall. And no one saw Cosima, either. There’s no trace of her, in the dead woman’s apartment, she didn’t touch anything there and made sure to remove the measuring cup afterwards, as well.

“Back with us?” she asks when Delphine steps into the lab pretty late almost two weeks since Cosima found her. The blonde forces a smile and nods, reaching back to pin up her curls.

“Yes,” she confirms. “I was given the all-clear. They discharged me a few days ago, I’m back on, packaged meals,” she shrugs, fingers flying over the keys of her computer as she logs into the system.

“Good,” Cosima nods, sauntering over. “You, gave me quite a fright.”

“Hm?” Delphine hums, looking up from the screen. “Sorry, I was trying to catch up… what were you saying?”

“Nothing,” Cosima shakes her head. “Just, good to have you back,” she tells her with a tilt of her head. Delphine gives her a soft smile before returning her attention back to the screen and Cosima resigns herself to returning to her own station and the cells she has waiting for preparation for another experiment.

It’s a couple of hours later, when they leave the Institute together, that she notices the glint in Delphine’s eyes. The hunger lurking beneath the surface and how her lips curl back when a human passes them on the other side of the street.

“Hey,” Cosima frowns, bumping into the taller woman and jostling her to pull her out of her thoughts. To prevent her from going full Hunting Instinct on some poor unsuspecting chap.

“Sorry,” Delphine shakes her head, reaching up to touch her forehead. “I, I’m a little…”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Cosima nods, searching her face before she looks down the street. She’d usually said goodbye to Delphine outside the Institute in the past, unless of course they had made plans to spend the rest of the night with each other. Which they haven’t, not for tonight at least.

But the thing is, with Delphine on edge like this, she’d rather not let the other woman out of her sight. If she does, Cosima has the sinking feeling that it will lead to the death of at least one more human, possibly more. Which, would be bad, for their kind. It might trigger another witch hunt and this time, it won’t be the magic users being burned at the stake.

“Hey, how about, a movie night?” she suggests, tilting her head. “We haven’t done that in a while. It would be fun.”

“Cosima…”

“Please,” she adds, realizing she’s actually really missed hanging out with the blonde vampire, outside of work. “I, I missed them. And I know it’s my fault, I made it awkward, with me, you know…” she says, motioning between the two of them. “But I’d like it if we could like, try to do them again. I promise there won’t be any kissing involved.”

Delphine tilts her head back, looking up into the night sky as she mulls the idea over, before finally allowing a heavy sigh to leave her lips.

“Fine,” she declares and Cosima is already doing a fist pump and making her chuckle. “But, uh, I… need a lot of, food, these days…” she trails off, her cheeks tingeing pink, and Cosima waves her off.

“My fridge is well stocked,” she promises, hooking her arm through Delphine’s. When the blonde eyes her uncertainly, she rolls her eyes. “I got my supply yesterday, so even if you were ravenous, I’m pretty sure that there’ll be enough food for you.”

“Okay,” Delphine nods with a soft smile, allowing Cosima to pull her in the direction of her car, the brunette smiling softly to herself.

* * *

Dephine reaches up, rubbing the heel of her palm over her eye before blinking slowly at the mug Cosima holds out to her.

“Take it,” the brunette says. “Before it gets cold,” she adds when the blonde hesitates to do so.

Delphine takes the mug from her hands, fingers brushing briefly against Cosima’s as she does. She lifts it to her face, taking a whiff of the drink, her eyes taking on a golden glint as she starts to drink greedily.

“Need more?” Cosima asks her with a tilt of her head when Delphine lowers the empty mug, a trickle of blood rolling down the corner of her mouth, her fangs still extended.

“Yes, please,” the blonde whispers, cheeks tingeing red with a soft blush of embarrassment.

“Sure thing,” Cosima nods, gently taking the mug back and pouring more blood into it, and then another, popping both into the microwave to heat it up a little.

When she turns around again, she finds Delphine looking down her own body, frowning at the naked legs in slight confusion. It’s almost adorable, how confused, how dazed she is.

She fell asleep during the movie they were watching. Well, nodded off, briefly, and then jerked awake again. Stumbled to her feet, barely able to keep her balance. Cosima had offered her the bed at that point. Had gently guided her into the bedroom and helped her get out of her dress. Gave her an oversized shirt an ex-girlfriend used to wear while painting to sleep in and then helped her under the covers before returning to the living room and making up the couch for herself for the day.

The microwave beeps before shutting off and Delphine’s eyes zoom in on it. She takes a step towards it, before reigning herself in. Cosima reaches out and opens it, taking out both mugs and handing one to Delphine. The blonde immdiately downs the contents, blinking in surprise when Cosima holds out the other as well.

“Take it,” the brunette smiles at her. “And if you need more, there’s a lot left. Don’t worry about it,” she tries to reassure the other woman.

“I’m sorry,” Delphine apologizes still, lifting the mug to her lips. At least she’s drinking more slowly now. Stops after a few sips and licks her lips, her fangs finally starting to retreat. “I have no idea what happened yesterday,” she adds, her brows creasing into a soft frown.

“You fell asleep,” Cosima shrugs. “It happens. It wasn’t a big deal.”

Delphine shakes her head, finger tracing the rim of her mug.

“Ever since I got so, so sick, I’ve been… There’s nights when I feel like someone has pulled the plug and I fall asleep from one second to the next.”

Cosima tilts her head, searching the blonde’s face, worry gnawing at her insides. “Is that… is that, normal?” she asks her.

Delphine swallows, taking another gulp of her breakfast.

“It’s hard to tell,” she admits as she leans against Cosima’s kitchen counter. “The reality is, they weren’t sure that I would survive. Most that were in my situation didn’t, so this is, kind of new territory. At least it is an uncertain one. We hope that it’s not a permanent thing, that my body will recover completely and it will stop being an issue. But no one can say for sure,” she shrugs. Clinks her nails against the ceramic of the mug for a moment. “And even if it stays, I’ll still be alright. I got off very lightly. Most others, the few that did survive, suffered permanent damage. To their bodies, their minds…”

The brunette swallows thickly at the reminder of what could have happened. How close she came, to losing Delphine. How close the blonde came, to dying. At the thought, Cosima feels a shudder run through her and she gives a small shake of her head, in an attempt to clear it from the dark thoughts, the idea of what might have been.

“Well,” she says with a forced smile, “you’re more than welcome to crash here again. Unless, of course, you hated the bed.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Delphine tells her with a slight tilt of her head. “Certainly better than the coffin I was expecting.”

Her words make Cosima let out a chuckle and shake her head with amusement.

“Come on then,” Cosima says. “Go ahead, take a shower. I’ll take you home after, for a change of clothing, and then we can both go to work.”

“Hm,” Delphine nods. Finishes her cup before setting it down onto the counter. She starts to leave the room but pauses in the doorway, turning to look at Cosima again with a soft expression in her eyes.

“Thank you, Cosima,” she says, the gentlest of smiles on her lips.

“You’re more than welcome,” Cosima replies easily, and has to swallow at the lump in her throat. “Go on,” she waves Delphine on. “Take a shower, I’ll clean up here.”

Delphine inclines her head and ducks out of the room, leaving Cosima to close her eyes as she tilts her head back and takes a deep breath, silently yelling at herself to get a damn grip.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **content warning** for semi-graphic descriptions of a burn injury
> 
> i'll try to post another chapter on monday (dec 23) as usual, but after that, i won't be able to update until the second week of january (beginning jan 6th). if something comes up and i'm not able to post on monday, let me take this opportunity to wish you all a merry shitscram and a happy new year. may 2020 be better than the bullshit 2019 was.

It was stupid. Dumb and stupid and she should have known better. So much better. But she’s kind of, always making dumb decisions. At least every so often. The moments when her impulsivity overrides the rest of her brain, and when she does things that, in hindsight, feel like she should have known wouldn’t end well for her.

Kissing Delphine was one of those stupid decisions, too. And now, this.

Cosima winces, a pained hiss escaping her as her arm jerks in an attempt to pull away from the pain.

“Sorry,” Delphine whispers, pulling back her hand and leaning back a little from where she is hunched over the brunette’s arm.

“It’s, it’s fine,” Cosima shakes her head, grinding her teeth. “It just…” she trails of, looking at her wrist. The burn wrapped around it, her skin blistered and raw and red.

Her right arm is resting on a rolled up towel with sterile linen on it, just to make sure she does not get an infection from her stupidity. The hand itself is resting in a bowl of water, the water that Delphine used to wash out her wound. There’s a section of about two centimeters, wrapped around her wrist, that is just burned badly and blistered and painful all around. Delphine already managed to get most of the completely charred tissue off.

Her left hand is in a bowl of cool water. It’s helping with the pain in her fingertips. She’d burned those, too, in her frantic attempt to get the bracelet off again, the clasp not cooperating with her shaky attempts to open it.

Delphine shakes her head, grabbing a fresh swab to continue cleaning the wound. Make sure she got all of the dead tissue out.

“How did this happen?” Delphine asks her, her voice low. Cosima thinks she might be trying to distract her from the pain, but it’s not really working. She keeps wanting to scream and jerking to get away from the pain the procedure brings. She knows that it’s necessary, the dead tissue needs to be removed, especially because there may still be particles stuck to it. But logic isn’t standing that much of a chance, in the face of the utter agony she feels every time that Delphine touches the injury.

“I was dumb,” she shrugs, moving her arm on reflex when Delphine touches a particularly painful area. “I touched it briefly and when nothing happened, I thought it would be fine. Clearly I was wrong,” Cosima scoffs, mad at herself for not considering that it would take her body a few moments to actually start reacting to any potential toxins in the metals.

“Hm,” Delphine hums softly under her breath. “I’m more concerned how you even got silver jewelry,” she tells her, the blonde’s head tilting as she continues to examine the damage Cosima did to herself.

“Oh that,” Cosima chuckles, blushing a little. “I uh… I guess you could say it was a gift. From, someone who didn’t know.”

“What kind of someone who doesn’t know you’re a vampire gives you jewelry?” Delphine frowns at her briefly before picking up a pair of surgical tweezers. Cosima choses to look away then, deciding she’s better off not watching that bit. She’ll feel it, anyway, she doesn’t need the additional visual to know how bad it is, or to have it add to the excruciating pain she is already in.

“It wasn’t very serious,” she sighs. “I guess you could say we, dated, for a while. She got really infatuated after that and it uh, it stopped being fun then.”

The blonde looks up at her sharply at those words. Searches Cosima’s face, something burning in her eyes that looks eerily like anger. Interesting. And Cosima would certainly linger on that and think about what it might mean, if she weren’t currently feeling like someone was setting her wrist on fire.

“What?” Cosima frowns. “She didn’t do it on purpose,” she adds. It’s not like the human had known, that silver would hurt her. The bracelet had actually been one of the last gifts she’d given Cosima, and in large part a reason why the brunette vanished from her life and left that part of the city. Hasn’t gone there for, well over two decades, actually. To avoid fanning the building infatuation in the human woman.

She’d been, very nice. Kind. Amazing in bed. She’d made her laugh and distracted Cosima from her darker thoughts and she’d appreciated their hook-ups for that. But she hadn’t been looking for anything permanent, or stable. If she had, Cosima wouldn’t have bedded a human. She would have chosen one of her own kind for that. No, she had been looking for a distraction, and the human blonde had been cute and funny and smart and every bit of a fresh breeze in her otherwise very stale life that Cosima had very much appreciated.

As for why she’d dug out the bracelet earlier… She’d just been, feeling a little nostalgic. It happens, sometimes. Where Cosima will have moments where she misses the times that have passed, and the people that have slipped out of her life, for whatever reason. She’d found herself missing the human and what they had shared, in large part because she is so frustratingly single, right now, and doesn’t have anyone like that in her life anymore. No one that is sharing her bed with, no one she gets to have these interactions with. And Cosima had figured, allowing herself to wallow in self-pity for a bit, it would help her get over herself in the long run.

She’d been so utterly wrong, in her calculation of pros and cons for that equation, it’s not even funny anymore. Now she’s here, in her bathroom, with Delphine giving her first aid because she has been utterly stupid and put a silver bracelet around her wrist.

She’s lucky it wasn’t a necklace and she ended up strangling herself with it, Cosima thinks.

“Okay,” Delphine declares after a few moments of silent work and puts the tweezers down again. Lifts Cosima’s arm and inspects her wrist from all sides.

“Does it still feel like there is a reaction happening?” she asks her and the brunette swallows thickly before slowly shaking her head no.

“No, I think everything is washed out,” she frowns.

“Good,” Delphine murmurs, reaching over to grab a pack of sterile gauze so she can dry Cosima’s skin and then put a bandage on it.

Their injuries tend to heal quickly, at least most of the time. If this were an ordinary burn, Cosima would be expecting it to start healing by now and be done in a few hours, tops. But this isn’t a normal burn, it is an injury from her skin coming in contact with silver. Their supernatural healing abilities cannot speed up the healing process for these. It will take time, for this wound to begin healing, and what is more, Cosima strongly suspects that she will have a scar left over by the time her body has finally managed to regenerate the skin.

She’s extremely lucky that Delphine was on her way over to her place, anyway. For one of their movie nights. She’d even brought some fancy wine along. And Cosima and her stupidity really ruined the evening, for both of them.

“I’ll have a look at those in a moment,” Delphine nods towards Cosima’s left hand as she finishes dressing the brunette’s right wrist. “Give it a roll, not too tight?” she asks her and Cosima carefully moves her hand, biting back a pained whimper.

“I think it’s okay, for the moment,” she answers, taking her left hand from the water and allowing Delphine to inspect that, as well. It doesn’t hurt as much, maybe because the exposure hadn’t been for as long, maybe because the skin is not as delicate as her wrists are.

“These don’t look as bad,” the blonde murmurs, tilting her head. “Though it’s in an unfortunate place.”

“No kidding,” Cosima sighs, glaring at the tips of her thumb, index and middle finger. They’re the worst, plus there is a small piece of burned skin on the top of the middle segment of her ring finger, where it touched the bracelet as she was frantically trying to get the clasp open. She probably should have just torn the damn thing, instead of trying to open it. It’s not like she will ever wear it again, and getting it off faster would certainly have helped with keeping the extent of her injuries down. Oh well, hindsight and all that.

“Thanks,” Cosima murmurs, reaching up to brush a hand over her forehead. “I mean, I, I don’t know what I would have done without you-”

“It’s fine,” Delphine waves her off before she stands, starting to clean up the improvised medical station. “Just, next time you get your hands on some, unknown jewelry, promise me you will run an analysis on it before putting it on your skin?”

“I’ll try and remember that,” Cosima nods with a small smile. “I mean, now that I have access to Dyad’s fancy equipment… Though maybe they would object to a misuse of it in that way,” she muses with a tilt of her head, and heads Delphine snort.

“If they do, too bad,” the blonde declares. “I believe somewhere in their rules and regulations is a line about looking out for employee welfare. As far as I am concerned, making sure you don’t put deadly poison on your skin is an aspect of that, and therefore, you are free to use any equipment to ensure your continued existence.”

“That’s a take I can certainly get behind,” Cosima agrees as she stands, hand shooting out when she feels the blood drain from her head, making her dizzy and causing the room to spin.

“_Woah!_”

Delphine’s hand shoots out, steadying her and helping Cosima sit back down. The brunette draws a shaky breath as she pinches the bridge of her nose.

“Are you okay?” the blonde asks, her thumb stroking gently over the material of Cosima’s shirt at her side, where her hand is resting from trying to steady the brunette.

Cosima swallows thickly, panic sitting heavy in the pit of her stomach.

“I will be right back,” Delphine tells her, the touch of her hand disappearing and Cosima has to stop herself from calling out the blonde’s name, from pleading with her not to leave her. She’s, she’s an adult. A centuries old one, in fact. And not a little child. Delphine, she said she would be right back. So far, the blonde has not shown herself to be a liar. Cosima should be trusting her word, should accept that Delphine will only leave her side to help her in the long run.

“Here,” the blonde says only a few moments later, holding out a bag of blood to Cosima. Who snatches it quickly, sinking her fangs into the side and draining the liquid into her open mouth. She’s making a downright mess of herself, Cosima can feel it. Can feel the blood trickle down her chin and neck as she tilts her head back, sucking on the blood bag and draining it.

The effect is nearly instantaneous. She hadn’t even realized how washed out the colors had gotten, how weak she’d felt before she stood. Cosima can feel her heart pounding in her chest, blood rushing in her ears. Her wrist still pulses with pain, but it is not as pronounced, not as consuming of her attention as it was just moments ago.

Wordlessly, Delphine takes the empty bag from her and holds out the other, and Cosima feels her cheeks heat up in embarrassment when she realizes that the blonde has actually stuck a straw into the thing. She ducks her head, mumbling a soft thanks and sets out to drink that one, as well, hunger gnawing at her insides.

“It’s okay,” Delphine murmurs, crouching down next to where Cosima is sitting and watching the brunette intently. “I should have realized you’d need sustenance, after an episode like this. I apologize.”

“Not your fault,” Cosima mumbles between long pulls from the straw. The hunger is slowly starting to recede, is losing some of its strength. It makes her wonder, suddenly, if that was the way Delphine felt, after her ordeal. And if it is, it’s no wonder she was so ravenous and didn’t care at all where the blood she was taking in came from. Or who she was killing to sustain her own existence.

Upon finishing the second bag, the brunette vampire lets out a measured breath. She fangs are still poking at her lower lip, taking Cosima by surprise. She hadn’t even noticed them extending, but they must have in response to seeing the bags. She wouldn’t have been able to tear through the first bag without them, she doesn’t think.

“Would you like more?” Delphine inquires, her voice soft as she searches Cosima’s face.

“I, I think so,” she nods, feeling shame burn across her face. “But I think I should, perhaps, clean myself up first,” she adds with a gesture at her neck and the front of her shirt, which is now splattered with blood.

“Perhaps, yes,” Delphine nods, her lips curving into a gentle, almost indulgent smile. “How about, you wash yourself and I fix you a mug or two? Would you prefer it at a warmer temperature? I can put it in the microwave for you.”

“No, I’m good with it coming from the fridge,” she tells the blonde.

Delphine hums softly as she stands again, grabbing the used tools and the empty bags.

“I’ll, leave the door open a little, okay? Just so I can hear, if…”

“Hm,” Cosima agrees, ducking her head in embarrassment. She knows it’s a possibility that she might faint, when she gets up again to clean herself. That doesn’t mean that the idea of Delphine having to come to her rescue yet again is a pleasant one, or one that’s not laced with utter humiliation for the brunette.

Delphine hovers in the doorway for a moment, clearly not entirely comfortable with leaving Cosima by herself.

“I know that, tonight would have been my choice, but after the ordeal you’ve had, it only seems fair that you should get to choose what movie we’re watching,” she says, resting her shoulder against the doorjamb as Cosima leans over and turns on the faucet before grabbing a washcloth to wet.

She tilts her head, trying to go through her movie selection mentally, to come up with something that both of them might enjoy.

“Would you be terribly upset with me if I suggested _Practical Magic_?” she finally gives in. And watches Delphine’s brows dip as she blonde tilts her head, her lips moving silently as she repeats the title.

“I don’t think I’ve heard of it,” she finally says, and Cosima feels heat spread across her cheeks yet again.

“It’s, just kinda silly. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman play sisters who are witches and one of them accidentally kills their boyfriend… it’s a whole thing. Unless you rather not deal with witchy things.”

Delphine tilts her head in contemplation.

“They are not real witches, right?” she asks finally. “I mean, this is all, all acting, and special effects?”

“Yes,” Cosima nods quickly. “Yes, they’re all human and any magic you see is that of the special effects department variety.”

“In that case I am fine with watching it,” the French vampire declares with a decisive nod. “What did you say the name was again? So I can put it on already while you…”

“_Practical Magic_,” Cosima reminds her and sees Delphine mouth the name again as she turns and leaves the bathroom, pulling the door nearly closed behind herself. Cosima stares at the wood for a good half minute before giving a sharp shake of her head to pull herself from her thoughts and setting out to clean the sticky blood off her skin finally.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope everyone had nice holidays and a good start to the new year. welcome back!

So, maybe she shouldn’t have snuck away from the gala. Maybe she should have stayed and tried to make small talk and mingle with the other vampires. Only it was so damn boring!

Cosima lets out a low groan at the memory and tilts her head back briefly, rolling her shoulders before she continues her was down the corridor of the Old Wing. A bunch of old farts patting themselves and each other on the back for… what exactly? Because Cosima is pretty sure that almost none of them are doing any actual work at Dyad. That they’re only here to, look good and smile for the cameras. Meanwhile, people like Delphine, who have actually been doing the work that these numbskulls are presenting tonight, they’re suspiciously absent.

Which, is indeed a bit strange. Because Cosima knows for a fact that Delphine was invited. She actually thinks that the blonde had been asked to present their latest findings herself, and give a potential outlook on future research and projected costs and benefits and a tentative, very, very tentative timeline even. Yet in the half hour that Cosima had spent upstairs with all those people, she hadn’t even caught even a brief glimpse of the blonde. And when it was time for her presentation, it had been Leekie who took the stage.

Which was the reason why Cosima decided to leave. She just can’t, with the guy. He makes her skin crawl, makes her feel rather uncomfortable. There is just something about him that is not quite right. That she finds intensely upsetting. She’s not sure what it is, exactly. Maybe the way he keeps staring at her, or how fake his grin is. Or perhaps it had been that time when Cosima had fallen into Delphine’s memory, and the blonde had been in Leekie’s office and immediately closed her mind to his probing. Even Delphine doesn’t trust the guy, and that makes Cosima all the more wary of him, as well.

She digs out her employee badge from her purse and swipes it over the reader, the door to the lab giving a soft beep as it unlocks and allows Cosima to enter. The brunette steps inside, setting her purse on a nearby desk and grabbing a lab coat, just to be on the safe side. She doesn’t plan on staying long, but this was a pretty expensive dress, and she really doesn’t want to ruin it. If she’s careful with it, it will last her another decade or so. By then fashion will probably have moved on, as well. Then again, it’s not like their kind is overly aware of what human fashion currently dictates is the “look of the season”. She’s seen an awful amount of frills upstairs, along the button line of men’s shirts, and on the ends of shirtsleeves. Fashions from over a century ago, yet the people wearing them are so set in their ways, so unable to accept change and progress…

Perhaps that will be their end, ultimately. Isn’t that what Darwin’s Theory of Evolution teaches? That the organism that fails to adapt is doomed? And her kind has been very slow to adapt. Even the ones here, at Dyad. They may toy with the fancy tech and state-of-the-art equipment, but their ideas, their minds, they’re stale. There is nothing new about them, nothing, nothing transformative, innovative.

The brunette allows a deep sigh to escape her lips as she reaches up to pull her wavy hair into a quick ponytail. She kept it down for a change, for the gala, but now it’s bothering her and anyway, she is in the lab. There are some rules she knows Delphine can be pretty adamant about, the protocols in place to avoid contamination being one of them.

It’s only when Cosima turns around to walk over to the working station she had occupied a couple of hours ago that she finally notices the soft light coming from next door. The room that is used as an office, for the scientists working on this project to do their writing with some peace and quiet. She tilts her head, curious as to who may be in here at the early hour, and walks over, the sliding doors parting almost silently to grant her entrance. And Cosima’s eyes widen at the sight of a very familiar figure at one of the desks.

There she is, there is Delphine, decked out to the nines, sitting at one of the desks and staring off into space. Cosima tilts her head, stepping inside, the doors closing behind herself again. She leans against one of the free desks with her hip and regards the blonde for a moment, before she clears her throat.

Delphine jumps out of her chair, looking over as her lips curl back over her lips and her fangs extend, ready for a fight. Cosima merely arches a brow at her and watches as the blonde blushes furiously when she recognizes her.

“Oh,” Delphine breathes, her shoulders slumping as she ducks her head in embarrassment.

“Sorry,” Cosima apologizes as she takes a step closer. “I didn’t mean to, spook you.”

“It’s fine,” the French vampire waves her off, her fangs already retracting. “I was just… lost in thought, I suppose.”

“Interesting musings?” Cosima inquires with a tilt of her head. Delphine’s brows furrow into a soft frown before she gives a shake of her head.

“Not really, non,” she says, forcing a smile, but there is something in the way she avoids Cosima’s eyes, in the way she keeps her chin tucked down, that makes the brunette’s eyes narrow. She opens her mouth to call the other woman out on her bullshit, but then decides to let it slide.

“I didn't see you upstairs,” she says instead, trailing her fingertips over the edge of the desk Delphine was sitting at. The blonde lets out a scoff and shakes her head, stepping out from behind the desk, her movement pushing her wheelie chair back forcefully. “Was that because you were lost in thought, or did you get lost as a result of whatever made you not attend…” she trails off, motioning to the ceiling vaguely.

Delphine draws a measured breath and reaches up to pull the clip out of her hair, causing her curls to tumble down and spill over her shoulders. She reaches up, running her hand through them to muss them up further.

“The latter,” she answers finally, a steel edge to her voice that makes Cosima’s brows shoot up in surprise.

“Oh?” she mutters, watching the other woman carefully. She doesn’t want to get involved in any, any disputes that the blonde may have going on. Cosima, she’s not cut out for politics and scheming. It tires her, it is endlessly exhausting to her, and she doesn’t have the talent for it. Which, in her book, is a plus, because she can’t stand lying scheming assholes that tell you one thing to your face only to turn around and do the exact opposite of what they just said. She can’t stand snivelling and grovelling two-faced power hungry backstabbers. Which, she is starting to think, is a group that Leekie is a member of. Just a certain vibe Cosima is getting from him, it makes him seem, less-than-truthful, to her.

But if Delphine is indeed having a, kind of pissing contest with someone else, Cosima would like to know about it. They work together, there is a chance that the brunette will find herself caught in the crossfire, and if it happens, she’d rather be prepared. But what is more, she considers Delphine to be her friend. She wants to know if the blonde is in trouble, if there is something on her mind. If there may be a threat to her safety. Cosima wants to, needs to know about that, so that she can try and help to keep the other woman safe.

Delphine gives a soft shake of her head and runs a hand through her hair before allowing it to fall to her side again.

“It’s, nothing,” she tells Cosima with a soft scoff. “Just… Leekie and I, had a difference of opinion. With regards to crediting people for their work.”

“What?” Cosima asks, crossing her arms in confusion.

“I insisted on adding your name to the presentation. He didn’t like it, and when I refused to budge… well, you probably saw who was up on that podium, and who is sulking in the basement,” the blonde chuckles humorlessly.

“Wait,” the American says, holding up a hand as her mind tries to catch up with what it is Delphine is saying, is telling her. “Why would you want to add my name? It’s, it’s your work.”

“Cosima,” Delphine laughs with a shake of her head before she meets her eyes. “The past few months, you have done more for this project than anyone else here, me included, combined!”

“Oh no,” the brunette argues, holding up her hands. “That’s not… it’s your project!” she exclaims. “I only, joined it. I mean, did I have some pretty good ideas? Sure,” Cosima allows, not one to sell her own contributions short. She knows how much work she put into this, and she won’t lie about it. But that also means that she won’t accept unduly praise or laurels. Yes, there is a chance that one or two of her contributions were crucial to the advancement of the UV exposure project. But she wouldn’t have been able to make them without bouncing ideas off of Delphine. Without the blonde, any of Cosima’s suggestions, they would have been, useless.

“But it’s really you, who’s driving it forward. You deserve to have your name on all those documents.”

“Well,” Delphine sighs, “now neither one of us does. Thanks to me underestimating how much Aldous-” she suddenly cuts herself off with a sharp breath.

“Loathes me?” Cosima supplies after a beat. While Delphine doesn’t confirm her suspicion with words, the blonde’s renewed blush is answer enough. “Whatever did I do to the guy?” she frowns, genuinely wondering what it is she did to piss him off.

“You, ah…” Delphine starts, reaching up to rub her neck. “You came in and pissed against the tree he’d been circling for a while, working up the nerve to mark, so to speak.”

“Huh?” Cosima frowns, unable to follow.

“Aldous, he’s tried to make a pass at me. A few times, actually,” the blonde explains, her posture sagging as she leans against the desk with her behind and crosses her arms. “I turned him down, but he got it into his head that it was a temporary thing. That I would change my mind soon enough. And when you kissed me and I didn’t scratch your eyes out over it…” she trails off with a vague gesture of her hand.

“Huh,” Cosima mutters, joining Delphine in leaning against the desk. She mimics the blonde’s posture, crosses her arms and her ankles. “Question: How does he know, about the kiss? Because I didn’t tell him, or anyone else, for that matter. I, don’t go around telling people that I’ve been unceremoniously shut down. And you told me you hadn’t mentioned it to him, either. So, how does he know?”

Delphine’s upper arm brushes against Cosima’s shoulder, making the brunette turn her head so she can look at her. Delphine meets her eyes before tilting her head and giving a slight jerk of her head. When Cosima frowns in confusion, the blonde rolls her eyes and clears her throat, her eyes flicking to the ceiling. Cosima’s eyes follow her gaze, and find one of the many security cameras.

The American finds her jaw dropping in surprise before she snaps her mouth shut quickly in an attempt to keep the curse on her tongue from escaping.

“Oui,” Delphine murmurs softly with a rueful smile. “It appears that neither one of us took that into consideration.”

“He’s spying on you?” Cosima hisses, indignation rising inside of her at the audacity, at the abuse of power. At the invasion of Delphine’s privacy, and by extension, her own as well. There is a difference, between knowing that there are security cameras in place, in case there is an accident, or something ends up being stolen. She’s known they were there, knew that she was being recorded. But it’s markedly different to know someone is going through the footage, tracking what Delphine is doing. Keeping tabs on her, following her actions through the day, any place she might go, in the institute. It’s bordering on stalking.

“More like, one of his lackeys saw us on the footage, and told him about it,” Delphine corrects her with a gentle frown, though it doesn’t really do anything, to settle Cosima’s anger.

“I’ve told him that I want you on the project. I don’t care about what happened. You’re, you’re a brilliant scientist, Cosima. Throwing that away because of a stupid kiss, that’s… it’s stupid,” the French vampire shakes her head in annoyance. “And besides, I am not Aldous’s property. He can huff and posture all he wants, the fact remains that I am not a member of his Coven. He has no pull over me, and he can throw as many hissy fits as he wants about that. All his behavior is doing, is telling me that I made the right decision to turn him down, when he offered me a place in the Dyad Coven.”

“I thoughts you’d join them,” Cosima admits, feeling just a little stupid, for that assumption. But in her defense, most vampires are members of Covens. And Delphine had been new, in the US. It would have made a lot of sense, if she joined an established Coven, even if it had only been for the protection that they would’ve been able to provide her with. While Cosima does have the theoretical protection of the North American Alliance, they’re a, government type of organization. Covens are different, they provide actual manpower, in case one of their members is attacked, to protect them and retaliate against the people that tried to hurt them. That might be the only thing she sort of misses, about having a Coven, being a part of one.

“I did consider it,” Delphine admits, drawing the brunette from her thoughts. “When I first came here, everything was so different, and being away from my former Coven, it, hurt. It pained me, to be apart from them, and on my own. And I thought, perhaps another Coven, that might help, with one aspect of it. That it would make the transition easier for myself.”

“Why didn’t you? Join them, I mean.”

The blonde draws a deep breath, holding it for a moment, before she carefully lets it out again, her chest remaining still after.

“I want to say it was something about Aldous that set me on edge, that made me more cautious, that put me on my guard and made me take things slowly. But the truth is, I got lost in work, and then I thought, maybe mixing the two, work and Coven life, that it could be a bad idea. At that point he had already started hinting rather insistently at having, not-so-innocent feelings for me, so I was pretty glad I got lazy for once in my life,” she chuckles softly, and Cosima feels her own lips curl into a soft smile.

“I’m glad you got lazy, as well,” she tells her, warmth blooming inside her chest at the gentle smile that Delphine gives her.

“Come on,” the blonde declares as she pushes herself off the desk. “Let’s get out of here. We can go to my place, watch a movie together.”

“Oh?” Cosima tilts her head at the suggestion before straightening. “What do you have in mind?”

“Hm,” Delphine hums in thought, leading the way from the lab, Cosima pausing to hang up the lab coat again on their way out. “I’m not sure. I’ve heard that, _Interview with the Vampire_, it’s supposed to be worth a couple of laughs. Have you seen it?”

“No,” Cosima shakes her head, thankful that she usually tends to avoid movies that explicitly deal with their, unique conditions.

“We can watch something else, of course-” Delphine starts, but the brunette quickly cuts off her assurance as they walk down the corridor towards the elevators.

“Oh no,” she grins at Delphine, Cosima’s tongue poking the back of her front teeth, “you’ve said it, no taking it back now. We’re watching that movie, no matter how horrible it turns out to be.”

“Alright,” Delphine gives an easy laugh, her fingers brushing against the back of Cosima’s hand briefly before the contact falls away again, making Cosima look down in surprise, wondering if she imagined things.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry it took me so long to update. due to personal reasons, i have to scrap the "2 updates a week" schedule, and do one a week on saturday. my weeks are just too busy atm. i hope the wait was somewhat worth it, since this is over 3.5k.

Perhaps upsetting one of the more powerful vampires around is not the smartest idea. Yet Cosima cannot help but feel her chest swell just a little with pride at the sight of her own name on the paper. Of seeing it sitting right next to Delphine’s. Doctor Cosima Niehaus.

Though she does wonder, as to the blonde’s motivation. Why she is doing this, why she is insisting on doing things that are bound to piss Leekie off even more than he already seems to be.

It’s been like, three weeks, since the Dyad event. The one where Cosima found her down in the lab, by herself. The one where Delphine told her, about her fight, argument, confrontation, with Leekie. Since then, there have been a surprising number of memos, for this team, concerning standard procedures and reminders about Dyad protocols. There doesn’t seem to be a single day that passes without at least one email. Usually, there are multiple. Especially on the days after Delphine has had a meeting with any of the other department heads.

Cosima isn’t stupid. She knows what they’re doing. That they’re trying to discredit Delphine, are trying to build a case for her being incompetent, so they will be able to get away with firing the blonde. And Cosima is pretty certain that Delphine is very aware of it, as well. That the blonde knows how to read between the lines, is perfectly able to understand that the higher-ups are trying to push her out. And Cosima would wager that they’re being led by one particular asshole. Someone who isn’t used to being told no, who cannot handle it when he’s turned down, to have an attractive member of their species tell him she’s not interested, neither in him, nor in becoming a member of his Coven.

Leekie could make their lives hell, if he decided to. This kind of, soft hazing he’s dishing out at the moment, that’s all very tame and almost cute, when considering what he would be capable of, at least in regards to Delphine. Funnily enough, Cosima at least has the protection of the North American Alliance. She’s lived in America for so long that there wouldn’t be any argument about her being one of their members and therefore, under their protection. Delphine, she’s a different story. With her being originally from France, the North American chapter of the Alliance might not feel responsible for her, and the Central European chapter does not have enough reach in the Americas to make certain the blonde stays safe. Moving against her, hurting her, it could lead to a very nasty incident, and maybe that will stop Leekie from doing anything too bad. Or, and that’s a thought Cosima has, if he does, then there is a chance that nothing would happen to him, in case the North American Alliance doesn’t recognize Delphine as one of their own members purely by her current place of residence.

Cosima swallows thickly and shakes her head slightly, trying to push those thoughts away. She picks up the paper, her lips curling into a soft smile at the sight of her name under the field of “Authors”. It’s nice to get some credit for her work. And besides, she did write half of this, so there is that.

“Are you done?”

Delphine’s accented voice pulls her from her thoughts and she turns around to find the blonde standing there with her coat over her arm. Cosima nods, holding out the printed paper to the Delphine. Who takes it, her brows dipping briefly, before her eyes scan the front page and Cosima’s heart stutters in her chest at the sight of the other woman smiling softly.

“Bon,” she nods. “I can read this on the way.”

“Oh no,” Cosima shakes her head no as she goes to grab her own coat. “You’re not doing that,” she tells the blonde as they leave the lab together. “Because if you do, you’re not going to be finished by the time we get to your place, and I refuse to watch Dracula by myself,” she adds, narrowing her eyes at the blonde. Who tilts back her head with a soft laugh, surprising Cosima as she reaches out and hooks her arm through the smaller woman’s. Leans against her as they leave the institute.

“Alright,” Delphine says with a tilt of her head. “No more work for today, then,” she smiles at Cosima, who returns the gesture easily, trying very hard to ignore the soft flutters in the pit of her stomach.

* * *

She watches as Delphine cradles her mug in her hand, staring into the depth of it. Cosima tilts her head, leaning back in her own chair.

The other woman has been rather quiet, the past two days. Even at work, she’s not really been talking much, and her energy has been rather subdued, as well. It makes her worry. That Leekie and his ilk are getting to her. That the barrage of memos and emails is starting to have the intended effect, is making Delphine doubt her skills and undermining her authority in her own department.

She watches Delphine take a slow sip of her lunch, hears the soft clicking of her fangs against the ceramic of her mug.

“Are you alright?” Cosima asks her when the blonde sets down her mug again, long pale fingers wrapping around it.

“Hm?” Delphine frowns, looking up at her in confusion. “Sorry, I was, lost in thought,” she apologizes, reaching up to brush her hair behind her ear. Even her curls appear to be strangely limp, as if something is dragging them down alongside Delphine’s spirit.

“I noticed,” Cosima nods. Shifts, leaning forward again and bracing her weight against the table. “Are you okay?” she inquires, lowering her voice. “Did Leekie try something else?”

Delphine’s lips curl into a snarl, exposing more of her fangs, but then she reigns herself in and slowly shakes her head no.

“Non,” she mutters, reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose. “No, he hasn’t done anything, really. Which is precisely what worries me,” she says, running her index finger over the rim of her cup.

“I, I want to talk to you,” she says, raising her eyes to meet Cosima’s dark ones.

She feels her brows rise in surprise. Delphine and her usually talk plenty, but with how quiet the other woman has been there wasn’t much conversation today, besides what was necessary to get their work done. They haven’t really had one of their movie nights in a couple of days, either. Delphine usually said she was tired, after work, and asked for a rain check, which Cosima had been more than happy to give her. She wants the blonde to be healthy, of course. But there is no denying the fact that she does miss her, somewhat.

“Sure,” she nods, watching her intently. “What is it?”

To her surprise, Delphine draws a breath, her chest rising, before she shakes her head.

“Not, not now,” she tells her, eyes darting up to a security camera in the corner of the room. “Not here,” she adds with a frown before blinking and returning her attention to Cosima. “Would it be alright, if I came over? After work? We could talk, I could tell you…” she trails off with a new frown, eyes darting back to the security camera.

“Sure,” Cosima nods, offering the blonde a reassuring smile. “If you want, we can finish Dracula, too,” she adds with a grin, watching as Delphine lets out a groan at the offer. She really hadn’t been a fan of the movie and they’d ended up turning it off and putting on some other movie, about one of the Irish risings.

“Please, not that terrible movie,” the blonde shakes her head. “I will even let you put on this brainless dating show if you don’t make me watch one more second of it.”

“Hey!” Cosima exclaims in indignation. “_90 Day Fiance_ is a masterpiece of art, okay.”

Delphine lets out a laugh at that statement.

“Art, depicting what? The sad state of human love where strangers will hook up with each other while cameras are aimed at them to broadcast the event to thousands, if not millions of other strangers to see?”

Cosima lets out a huff and shakes her head.

“You’re just jealous because you don’t have a whole host of people falling over themselves for a chance to date you,” she mutters, finishing her bag and getting up to recycle it. When she turns back around, she finds Delphine watching her intently, Cosima feeling herself flush under the blonde’s gaze.

“What?” she asks, reaching up to wipe at her mouth self-consciously. “Do I have blood somewhere?”

“No,” Delphine replies with a shake of her head before lifting her mug and finishing her own lunch. She walks over, rinsing it out in the sink before putting it into the dishwasher. When she straightens again, her brows dip slightly.

“I think you have a rather curious idea, of what I find flattering,” she remarks with a look at Cosima. Who feels her jaw drop in surprise, leaving her to gape at the other woman as Delphine starts to leave the kitchen area, to get back to work.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asks the empty room after the blonde has already left, Cosima’s brows knitting in confusion before she gives a resolute shake of her head. She can ask Delphine about this later tonight, when they’ve finished work. Since the blonde is coming over anyway to have a conversation, she might as well ask her what she meant with that weird statement of hers.

* * *

Cosima draws a slow breath before letting the air escape her lungs again.

“Say something?” Delphine asks, searching her face. “Please?”

The brunette swallows thickly and reaches up to rub a hand over her face. Shakes her head and gets up from her couch to pace the room, her arms crossing tightly over her chest as her feet carry her from one end to the other before she turns, and then walks back, her thoughts an utter mess.

Maybe she should have been able to guess that this was going on. Should have been able to predict this, Cosima thinks. After all, it only seems to be a logical step. Like the only intelligent thing to do, really.

She just wishes that Delphine had told her about this sooner. That the blonde would have trusted her more, that she would have felt save, to talk to Cosima about her plans of running off into the night, so to speak.

Well, okay, it’s not exactly, running off into the night. Not without thorough planning, at least. Delphine has a schedule worked out, has been making plans and figuring out steps in order for her to leave the city without Leekie being able to come after her.

She’s been talking to a friend, who runs a lab. Who has told Delphine that, if she gets there, he’ll have a job for her, and make sure that she’s safe. She can stay with his Coven, for a while, no strings attached. To make sure that Dyad will not try to come after her.

And now she’s sitting on Cosima’s couch, telling her that this is basically what she’s been doing since the night of the gala. Working out a way of getting out of the city, away from the institute and the Dyad Coven. To get out of their reach, out of their bubble of influence, and finally be free again. Because that much is for certain, Leekie won’t be giving up. Things will only get worse, until Delphine ends up caving, until she gives in and agrees to a relationship with him. Until the blonde joins the Dyad Coven, he won’t leave her be. He’s gotten it into his head that, for some reason, he has some kind of ownership over her. That his initial job offer when Delphine had been new in town meant that she somehow now owes him, owes him so much she can only repay it by more or less becoming his wife for the rest of her existence.

Delphine seems to be determined to not let that happen, though. So she has been preparing in secret. Has snatched herself a new job, a place to stay at. A method of getting out of the city, though she hasn’t told Cosima what that is just yet. Just like she hasn’t told the brunette where she will be going. It seems like Delphine’s trust in her only extends so far.

“I’m sorry,” Delphine apologizes, her voice soft. “I wanted to tell you, truly. It just… the more people know, the higher the chance of Leekie or someone else finding out. If he knows, if he has any warning…” she trails off with a shuddering breath.

“Yeah, no, I get it,” Cosima shakes her head, waving her off. It hurts, it stings, to think that Delphine didn’t trust her to keep this huge secret. But at the same time, Cosima isn’t sure she would have acted any differently, if it had been her in Delphine’s place. As much as she might want to trust her, it would be an immense risk, one that Cosima isn’t sure she’d be willing to take.

“Cosima,” Delphine starts, scooting to the edge of the couch and leaning forward, fingers twitching before she catches herself and drops her hand from reaching for the brunette. “I, I was talking to my friend. I sent him our paper. You know, the one we co-authored?”

Cosima nods, her brows drawn in some confusion.

“He, he read it, and he's amazed, by your parts. And, and if you want to, he’d be prepared to offer you a job, as well,” Delphine says, practically beaming at Cosima. Who finds herself gaping at the blonde.

“What?” she asks, her heart stuttering in her chest.

“I know it’s, it’s a big step, and I know that it’s short notice and everything. I’m leaving within a week,” Delphine continues, swallowing. “And if you were to take the offer, I think it would be best if we left together. If one of us stays behind, chances are Aldous would try to get information about the other out of the one that remains behind,” she explains.

“So, if you want to, come with me…”

Cosima just stands there, staring at the blonde, unable to form a coherent thought over the sound of blood rushing in her ears.

She’s asking her. She’s asking Cosima to come with her, is practically asking her to, to run away with her. It’s, it’s crazy. It’s absolutely and utterly crazy, and Cosima can’t think of an answer. Because just weeks ago, if Delphine had asked her to do this, she wouldn’t have hesitated. Would have yelled yes at the top of her lungs. She would have followed the other woman to the ends of the earth, and then continued on, for as long as she needed to, for as long as Delphine asked her.

And she wants to say yes now. She does. She, she means so much to her, Delphine is so important to her that Cosima cannot think of abandoning her. Cannot fathom the idea of leaving Delphine to embark on this dangerous endeavor on her own.

But the thing is, she’s lived in North America for centuries, ever since she left Europe initially. And that had been, a challenge. To date, it’s one of the most painful experiences of Cosima’s long life. And she had been a lot younger then. If she were to leave this territory now… She’s not sure if she would be able to make it. If she could put a whole ocean between herself and her roots again. It had been so hard to do, the first time. She doesn’t even want to begin to imagine the agony it would be now.

“Delphine…” she starts, drawing a slow breath. And sees the blonde’s face fall, before she closes herself off. Before Delphine slides a carefully neutral mask in place of the crestfallen expression that had been on her face just a moment before. It hadn’t been there for long, but Cosima still saw it, still noticed it.

The brunette shakes her head and walks over to the couch. Sits down and runs a hand through her hair, tugging on the ends in an attempt to clear her head.

“I want to,” she tells the other woman. “I want to say yes, I do,” she insists at Delphine doubtful expression, at the huff that leaves the French vampire.

“Right.”

“I do,” Cosima repeats. “But I’m not… I’m not you,” she tries to explain. “I know that France is your home, going back to your old Coven, that’ll be good. For you. But for me, it’ll be a whole new continent. I’d be leaving my territory, the place I have lived in for over a century. And I don’t think I’m strong enough to do that. I’m sorry,” she shakes her head, tears brimming in her dark eyes as Cosima looks away in shame. Hides her face in her hands, for a moment, in an attempt to prevent the moisture in her eyes from spilling over.

This is such a mess. Such chaos. She wishes that there could be an easy solution, that there could be a way for them to stay together and still get to safety.

“Who said anything about France?”

Cosima frowns, looking up at Delphine again. The blonde’s brows are furrowed in an expression of utter confusion.

“You,” she reminds her. “You said you talked to your friend and you’ll be able to stay at his Coven-”

“Yes, he told me that,” Delphine nods, interrupting her with a dismissive wave of her hand. “But his Coven is not my old one,” she continues. “I would never… No. I left them behind for a reason, I am not going to return to them,” she says with a sharp shake of her head. Stands and crossing the room with large strides before she pauses in front of the TV. She watches Cosima intently for a long moment, Delphine’s jaw working as her lips curl back slightly, her fangs poking out.

“My friend, lives in Canada,” she finally says.

Her eyes widen in surprise at the blonde’s words, Cosima’s jaw dropping yet again.

“I, I can’t tell you where. Not just yet,” Delphine tells her, shifting uncomfortably on her feet as she looks away briefly. “But, it’s an area with long winters, and a not so insignificant French population,” she continues, the corners of her mouth tugging into the briefest smile before she grows serious again. “I’m not going back to France, Cosima.”

“Oh,” the brunette mutters, leaning against the back of her couch, before her eyes widen. “Oh,” she breathes, her brain catching up, catching on. Delphine isn’t going back to Europe, she’s staying in North America. She’s going to Canada. Which is still outside the boundaries of what Cosima considers as her territory, is beyond the border of the States. But the border will put Delphine outside of Dyad’s reach, outside of their realm of influence. And it will still be the same continent. The same as the States. There won’t be a whole ocean between Cosima’s old territory, and where she might be moving. It would be a lot closer than moving halfway across the world again. So close that she might just be able to handle the effects of leaving her territory again.

“Oh,” Delphine nods, searching her face.

Cosima rubs her hands over her thighs, frowning down at the pale skin. This is, crazy. She must be absolutely mad, to even consider this. Delphine, she’s known her for what, less than a year? And she’s seriously sitting her, considering uprooting her entire life, for the French vampire. Is considering leaving the town she has been living in for decades, leaving a very comfortable life behind and running off into uncertainty because, what? Because her traitorous heart decided to fall in love with the first pretty woman that gave any kind of attention to her?

She shakes her head with a huff of annoyance at herself. Yes, she is infatuated with Delphine. Has a ridiculous crush on the other vampire. But it’s more than that. She knows that Delphine isn’t interested in her that way, knows that all she wants from Cosima, all she is willing to give, is friendship. And Cosima is more than happy to take that. The blonde is amazing, as a person, and great company. She cares for her, cares about Delphine, more than just as a crush, more than in the narrow terms of a potential relationship. If Delphine told her she was going to see the guy that’s offering them both an out, who’s apparently able to get them both jobs in some lab in Canada, if Delphine said she was going to date him, Cosima would still consider coming with her. Not in the hopes of the blonde changing her mind, but because she doesn’t want to lose her as a friend. Which is going to happen, once Delphine leaves town. Once she’s gone, she won’t be able to keep in contact with Cosima. It would be too dangerous for her to do so. Cosima is the first person Leekie would try to get information out of, pertaining to Delphine’s new place of residence.

“I hate long winters,” she sighs.

“Oh,” Delphine murmurs, ducking her head.

“I swear, if you make me wear those stupid snowshoes, I will spike your blood supply with Canada goose blood,” she grumbles. And sees Delphine look up sharply, green eyes wide in surprise as she gapes at her before her face breaks out into a beaming smile and she crosses the room, practically throwing herself at Cosima. The brunette lets out a squeak of surprise as Delphine hugs her tightly, her body tensing before she relaxes at the sensation of the blonde’s body pressing against her own. She reaches up, wrapping her arms around Delphine, to hug her back, to hold onto her tightly.

This is crazy. She must have gone completely mad, to be agreeing to this. To even consider it for even a second. But there is just something about being close to Delphine, about how wonderfully alive she has been feeling since she walked into Dyad’s lab all those months ago and met the French vampire for the first time, that makes her incredibly reluctant to let go of her again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading! also, please be aware that i'll bump up the rating with the next chapter, as that'll deal with some heavy topics. as per usual, i will add relevant trigger warnings to the beginning when i post it and another reminder that the rating has gone up.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please note the rating change for this story with this chapter's publication.  
also, please be aware of the **trigger warnings** for kidnapping, torture, (implied) stalking, attempts at mind control.

Her head is swimming. Cosima’s eyelids move, opening a fraction, before she clenches them shut again, pain exploding inside her head.

Her entire body feels like a block of pure pain. The brunette tries to move, but her arms barely lower, before they are yanked back up above her head, making the woman groan in pain as her body slumps forward once more, her shoulder sockets screaming out in pain as her knees buckle and she is only held up by the shackles around her wrists.

Cosima’s eyes fly open at the realization that she’s shackled, her lips curling back into a snarl as her fangs extend. Unnecessarily, she finds, seeing as she’s in the small cell by herself.

She gives an experimental yank on the irons fastened around her wrists, but they don’t budge, she can’t dislodge them from the bricks they are fastened to.

“Fuck!” Cosima hisses, trying to get her legs under herself and to have them support her weight, before she ends up dislocating her shoulders.

Everything is all sorts of fuzzy. She has no idea how she ended up here, never mind where ‘here’ even is. The last thing she remembers…

Cosima’s brows dip in concentration as she searches her memory. Tries to pinpoint the last clear memory she has. She remembers coming into work, remembers being at the lab. Going home. Eating. Things get more fuzzy, after that. A knock on her door. Delphine in her living room, fumbling with her coat and a large bag. An envelope of cash as well as a bus ticket in her own hands. Standing outside, waiting for a cab. Hugging Delphine, holding her tightly, saying goodbye to the blonde and promising to meet her again, once they’re safely across the border.

There’s nothing after that.

No, not nothing, Cosima thinks, her brows dipping as she lets her head fall forward, her skull throbbing with a blinding headache. There’s the sound of footsteps behind her, and pain shooting up her neck as Cosima tries to turn around. And then nothing but blackness after that.

The brunette lets out a hiss of anger, throwing herself forward, trashing in her shackles as she tries to free herself, rage building inside of her. But beneath it, underneath all the anger and indignation, is pure fear. Fear for herself, yes, but more than that, fear for Delphine.

She knows that this wasn’t a coincidence. That whoever attacked her came to get the blonde, and when they couldn’t, they decide to take Cosima instead. Which means she knows exactly who took her. Who is behind this, who felt that knocking Cosima out and dragging her into a dungeon was a smart move. And it might be, if the goal is to piss her off.

She just hopes that Leekie won’t get his way. That Delphine won’t get it into her head to come back and look for her when Cosima doesn’t show up at their rendez-vous point in two days. That she stays in Canada, that she continues on her way to her friend by herself. That she writes Cosima off, that she’ll figure the brunette changed her mind and not come to talk to her, to get her to follow her to Canada.

Her wrists are burning from the iron rubbing against the soft skin and Cosima stops her fruitless trashing. Her chest heaves as the brunette draws shuddering breaths, tears burning in her dark eyes.

They were so careful. Downright paranoid, Cosima had thought. Delphine and her never mentioned anything about their plans within the Institute. Confined their conversations about it to Cosima’s apartment, Delphine not trusting that her own place had not been bugged by Leekie and his lackeys. They went as far as talking about plans for the next week at work, made up plans that they would never realize, just to throw people off. But apparently, at some point, one of them must’ve slipped up. Must have said or done something that tipped Leekie off, as to what they were going to do.

Cosima closes her eyes, trying to keep the tears from spilling down her face.

Delphine bought the tickets with cash. Got the bus ticket for Cosima. Actually, she got three, all to a different destination. Gave Cosima one, and then an address over a hundred miles from that stop, where they were going to meet up at, in two days time. Delphine herself would take a different route. So that if someone followed one of them, they would only be able to track one, and hopefully, that person would become aware of their tail and be able to throw them off before meeting up with the other.

She doesn’t even know how Delphine planned to get to Canada. By car or a different bus line, or train, or plane, Cosima has no idea. Nor does she know, where Delphine would make her stop, before their rendezvous. Where she would hide out for a little more than a day, where the blonde would lay low. And on top of that, Cosima doesn’t know where they would have gone after meeting up. Delphine kept their final destination a secret. She said that there would be a way for Cosima to find out, at their rendezvous point, even if the blonde didn’t make it there in time, or at all. That Cosima would be able to figure out where she was supposed to go. She hadn’t liked it that much, but the brunette understood why Delphine kept the details from her. It hadn’t been because she doesn’t trust Cosima, but more of an attempt to minimize a chance of it slipping out, of someone finding out.

It makes her wonder, suddenly, if maybe Delphine’s supposed friend told on her. Makes Cosima think that she should have been way more suspicious of the sudden offer of a job, of the seemingly perfect timing of it all. Perhaps the guy knows Leekie, perhaps he was bought by the creepy vampire, to get Delphine to abandon her comfort and relative safety for a wild goose chase at a chance of getting away from Dyad.

How could they have been so stupid? So naive? They should have known, that this was way too good to possibly be true.

Cosima lets out a scream of fury, throwing herself forward again and struggling against her shackles, her screams echoing around the dungeon as the vampire tries in vain to break free and warn Delphine. To prevent the blonde from running right into a trap.

* * *

Her throat is burning from the pain of being absolutely parched. She can feel her legs trembling beneath her. Cosima’s vision is swimming as she tries to focus on the stones of the floor. They keep coming in and out of focus, keep moving around weirdly, even if she tries to keep her head still.

“Do I really have to ask again?”

She lifts her head to glare at the figure in the doorway, her lips pulling back over her fangs in what she assumes is probably a rather unattractive snarl. Not that it is in any way effective. Cosima knows how weak she is, how little strength she has, right now. And so does Leekie. So all that she’s doing, is the equivalent of a baby lion cub attempting to roar. Cute, but utterly harmless.

Leekie’s lips curl back in a sardonic grin and he steps into her cell. Reaches out and grabs hold of Cosima’s hair at the back of her neck, yanking her up onto her tiptoes.

“Where. Is. Delphine?” he asks her, and Cosima has to fight every instinct to not flinch away from him. To not give him the satisfaction of seeing her cower, letting him see how weak and scared she is.

“Go to hell,” she tells him instead, jerking her head in an attempt to tear into the soft flesh on the inside of his arm. Her fangs graze his skin, blood touching her lips and she lurches on instinct, trying to clamp down on the source, but Leekie is too quick and Cosima too weak. He manages to let go of her and stumble back, out of her reach as she throws herself forward, the shackles around her arms holding her back, the metal refusing to budge as she trashes feebly in the irons, trying to get to him as Leekie presses a hand over the cut on the inside of his arm and stumbles from her cell.

Cosima hisses and snarls as the wooden door slams shut behind him, plunging her cell into total darkness again. She licks her lips, letting out a furious scream of frustration at the realization that this is all she’s going to get, all the food that she’s been able to have in God knows how long.

The fight goes out of her and she sags forward, her hair falling down to obscure her face as the brunette tries to fight down fresh tears.

She knows it’s been more than a day. Can tell by how hungry she feels. The last time she fed had been at work on the day that Delphine and her were going to flee town. After saying goodbye to the blonde, Cosima had intended to go upstairs, have her dinner, grab her things and leave, as well. But she’d been ambushed before she could make it back into the building, and now she’s here, in some dungeon cell, probably below the Dyad Institute. And she has no idea, how much time has really passed, because there are no windows to this cell, the only light she sees is when her door is opened, and then it’s the flickering light of torches used to illuminate the hallway outside.

It made her roll her eyes at first, the idea of vampires in the twenty-first century still lurking around catacombs and using torches in the night. But now that she’s growing weaker, she’s thinking it is a small kindness, for them to use firelight and not the bright neon lights that Dyad is so fond of in the labs upstairs. One of those would probably damage Cosima’s eyes, especially given how long she’s been sitting in the darkness by herself.

A day. Maybe closer to thirty-six hours. Not more than that, she would feel weaker if she went for longer without feeding. So Delphine, she should be safely in Canada, by now. Should be out of Dyad’s reach. Hopefully, when Cosima misses their rendezvous in a few hours, the blonde will grow cautious. Will reconsider meeting up with her friend.

She hasn’t prayed in centuries, but Cosima is willing to do it now. Is willing to plead with every deity humans have ever invented, for them to keep Delphine save. To make sure that the blonde stays firmly on the Canadian side of the border. To let her use that wonderfully brilliant brain of hers and make sure that she doesn’t blindly walk into a trap with her supposed friend.

She knows that she won’t be getting out of here alive. Cosima has realized that, is well aware of that fact. And she’s making her peace with it. She’s had a long life. Much, much longer than she ever thought she would have, when she’d still been a mere human girl. She was gifted with over two additional centuries, and she is very grateful for that. She’s ready to die. Is very willing to, if it will mean that Delphine will get to live the rest of her eternal life in freedom and away from Dyad and freaky Leekie.

Just let her be free and happy. That’s all that Cosima wants, all that she is asking for. That her death won’t be in vain. That it will help protect Delphine and the secret of her whereabouts. She’s more than willing to take that vague knowledge to her grave with her, Cosima thinks.

* * *

Cosima draws a ragged breath, her shoulder hurting from where she struck the floor stones earlier, as the guard threw her into this cell.

At least she is rid of her shackles now, she thinks, a weak sound leaving her. She’d wanted it to be a humorless chuckle, but it comes out as more of a death rattle.

Her eyes close and she has to fight to open them again. She’s so weak. So, so weak, she can barely turn her head, never mind actually move her body. Which is the only reason they haven’t bothered to shackle her again. At this point, she’d have to have any victim open her mouth and put their neck right under her teeth, for Cosima to do any kind of damage to them. She’d been even too weak to snarl at the guard that had grabbed her earlier.

She wants to sleep. Wants to close her eyes and just go to sleep. There have been stories, of some of their kind going into hibernation. Cosima never really believed them, always thought that it was some kind of, made up bullshit, but she’s willing to hope they are true now. That she can close her eyes and go to sleep and wake up in a few years, when someone stumbles upon her body and revives her with fresh blood.

Unfortunately, she’s scientist. She knows that this, it’s not how it works. She can feel it, can feel it in her body, in how weak she is. Can tell that her body is starting to shut down, for good this time.

She’s not sure, how long it has been, since she was captured. Since she was drugged and dragged here. She’s completely lost track of time, and she can’t even use her body’s state to tell it now. They gave her some blood, a few times. Only enough to prevent her from falling unconscious, so Leekie could continue his questioning, his interrogation. Could keep asking her the same questions over and over and over again. Where is Delphine? Whose idea was it to leave? How many times have they had sex?

The first time he asked that, Cosima forgot herself, for a moment. Forgot her position and broke out into laughter. He struck her, then. Hit her so hard it made her head fly to the side and she could feel her neck scream in protest. Could feel the scratch marks on her cheek from the impact, thin trickles of blood rolling down her cheek. It’s dried up now. When she opens her mouth, she can feel the dried blood on her cheek as it moves. The cuts aren’t healing, showing yet again in what a bad state she is.

Cosima slowly moves her legs, shifting her body slowly before collapsing back onto the stones, her chest heaving with ragged breaths. At least this is a more comfortable position. Feels so much better, now that her sore shoulder is no longer digging into the cobble.

Above her, the stars are shining brightly in the night sky and she thinks, for a moment, how much she missed their sight, before her eyes flutter close and she loses consciousness again.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please note the content warnings for **torture, violence, burns, death/dying** for this chapter
> 
> apologies for not updating this sooner. whoever is interested can read the bottom note for an explanation re: why postings in general have been scarce and i couldn't keep to a schedule.

Her eyes open slowly before fluttering closed again and then opening wide as terror fills her. She looks up to find the ceiling of her cell missing, replaced by metal bars. Beyond which the sky is starting to turn pink as the sun begins to rise.

“No,” she croaks, trying to move. Lifts her head, looking around frantically in her cell, trying to find someplace to hide, to protect herself from the sunlight that she knows is going to flood her cell within the next few hours.

She jerks at the sight of Leekie sitting on a stool by the door.

“You’re awake,” he remarks, lips curling back into a gleeful smile. Cosima pulls her own back in a soundless snarl, ready to try to scratch out his eyes. She hears him chuckle softly before he reaches into the inside of his jacket and pulls out a rather familiar-looking vial. Cosima’s eyes widen at the sight, her heart hammering in her chest, vain hope filling her.

“A curious thing, is it not?” Leekie remarks. “How such a small thing can bring so much hope.”

Cosima swallows thickly, trying to fight down a whimper. She’s not going to ask. She won’t give him the satisfaction of begging. Won’t let him see her pleading for her life. It will be okay. She is ready, she’s ready to die. She’s so weak already, it won’t take long for the sunlight to consume her. To light her on fire. Who knows, maybe, if she passes out before then, she won’t feel the pain. Maybe dying can just be like going to sleep for the last time, for her. She would like that, Cosima thinks. It sure beats the other gruesome ways of dying at Dyad’s hands her mind has come up with, since they captured her and threw her into their dungeons days ago.

“Last chance,” Leekie tells her. “Tell me where she is, and I will let you have this.”

Cosima’s dark eyes are glued to the vial in his hand. Her mouth opens, ready to spill her secrets, before she catches herself.

Even if he gives it to her, it won’t do much. Delphine and her, they were still trying to perfect their UV exposure protection. Were still working on extending the effects of it beyond two hours. Two hours, that can be a lot, for a vampire that’s forced to go out into the sunlight. But unless Leekie would also take her from this cell and put her into a new one, that’s all Cosima would get. A two hour extension, a two hour stay for her execution. In the end, she’d still be dead, the only difference being that she would have sold out Delphine in an attempt to buy herself a little time.

“Okay,” she whispers. Licks her lips, flinching at how dry and chapped they are. Her fangs catch on her tongue, cutting the skin, but there’s only the smallest trickle of blood welling forth from the wound.

Two hours. Two hours, that she gets to extend her life. And all she has to do is sell out Delphine. Someone who had been a complete stranger as little as a year ago.

Leekie straightens at her whisper. His eyes zone in on her and Cosima has to gather all her strength, to close off her mind to his probing. He hisses in frustration before standing. Walks over to her and pulls Cosima up by the scruff of her shirt. Lifts her into the air, until only the tips of her shoes are scraping against the stone, the brunette’s head spinning at the sudden movement, the way her body is being jerked around.

“Speak, then,” he hisses, fangs protruding as he snarls into her face. She blinks, her headache returning full force, but still Cosima lifts her head. Meets Leekie’s eyes, before pulling back her head and spitting in his face.

His infuriated roar is nearly deafening and Cosima tries to reach up to cover her ears before her body is thrown across the cell, her back hitting the brick wall hard enough to knock the wind out of her. She crumbles to the floor, unable to break the impact. And after, she lays there, wheezing, every bone in her body feeling as if it’s been broken, her entire being feeling like it’s been set alight with pain flooding her system.

“Stupid cunt!” Leekie snarls and takes a step towards her, and Cosima nearly lets out a sob of relief. He’s going to kill her, he’s going to tear her apart, limb from limb. At least that will be a quick death, she thinks, a teary chuckle leaving her.

But Leekie seems to catch himself, just before he grabs hold of her again. Stops, hands already outstretched, his long, thin fingers curling into fists of rage. He lets out another roar and suddenly turns on his heel. Sweeps from the room, the cell door slamming back into place behind him and Cosima lets out an impotent howl at the realization that she is being denied this little mercy. That she won’t even be getting a decent death, will instead be forced to wait here, in her cell, and watch the sunlight move closer and closer, until it finally touches her and burns her to a crisp.

The vampire curls in on herself, sobs shaking her frail body, her eyes unable to produce any tears at all.

* * *

He left the vial.

Cosima hunkers in the corner of her cell, pressed back as far as she could, her eyes glued to the sunlight on the stones of the floor of her cell, creeping ever closer.

A better vampire, a braver vampire, they would have already gotten it over with. Would have accepted their fate and stepped into the sunlight and just be done with it.

But she’s a coward. A complete and utter coward, who is cowering in the corner of her cell, clutching the precious vial in her hands, holding it against her chest.

Two hours. It’s such a short time, so little, when compared to her lifespan. Two hours, they will be over before she even knows it. Cosima will blink, and they’ll be gone, and she’ll finally be out of time and the sunlight with burn her up.

She closes her eyes, drawing a shuddering breath.

There was a rat, earlier. Just as the light had started to creep from the walls and start to touch the floor of her cell. It came scurrying from a hole near the far corner. Came hopping over to her, to investigate her. It probably thought she was dead. It was the last mistake it made in its life.

She had it between her fangs before she even knew it. Hadn’t thought that her body was even capable of such quick movements anymore. She probably shouldn’t have done it. It tasted absolutely vile, and what is more, it only served as a painful reminder of just how hungry she is. She’s been able to ignore it, before the rat. The sharp pains had dulled to a hollow ache, but the blood she got from the poor critter only made her body expect more, made it think it would get more nourishment if it just screamed loudly enough.

The tip of her boot is suddenly getting warm and Cosima jerks, trying to fold further in on herself, to avoid the sunlight for just a little longer. But there is nothing left to fold in, she’s already made herself as small as she can, and there is no place for her to hide.

She draws a shuddering breath, opening her palms to look at the vial in her hands. It might not even be enough. May be too small a dose to provide adequate protection. And she is so starved, her body so parched, even if it is enough, there is a chance it won’t be able to circulate enough, won’t be able to spread throughout her entire system.

Cosima shakes her head and carefully pulls the stopper from the vial, willing her hands to stop trembling so she doesn’t spill the smallest drop of the precious liquid. She raises it to her lips and tilts her head back, pouring the liquid down her throat.

It tastes absolutely awful, but she forces herself to lick the neck of the vial and the stopper. Swallows, again and again, to make sure she has gotten everything, as uncomfortable warmth explodes inside of her, making her let out a gasp of pain. Cosima barely manages to catch herself, barely manages to keep herself from falling forward, into the light. Tilts back and presses against the wall, drawing a ragged breath as she clenches her eyes shut and prays and prays that it will work.

Two hours. Two hours to make her peace, to accept her fate. To get ready to leave this world for good.

The only relief she has, is knowing that Delphine is save. That no matter what happens to Cosima, the French vampire will be able to continue with her life, away from Dyad and their monstrous Coven.

It almost feels like victory.

* * *

Her skin burns. It burns, it hurts, and Cosima can’t get the material of her shirt to stretch any further as she tries to cover herself.

The effects of the serum are wearing off. It’s a small miracle that it worked at all in the first place, but the sun hasn’t moved much, so she thinks it has probably been less than two hours. Yet her skin is starting to turn red, is hurting, agony flooding her system as the immunity to the UV rays wears off.

She shouldn’t have taken it. It was stupid, of her. Should have instead chosen the quick death of stepping into the light. It would have been much, much better than this.

Cosima lets out a hiss of pain, the stench of burning flesh filling her nose. She bites her lips for a moment before giving in and letting out a pained howl as she curls around her arm, pain licking along the place the sunlight touched.

Her cell door opens and she snarls, but doesn’t want to move. At least in this position, it’s her back that is getting the brunt of the light. It hides her face and throat and the soft flesh of the insides of her arms. She knows that in a few moments, she will feel pain explode down her back as her skin loses its ability to protect her from the effects of the sunlight.

“In here!”

There are footsteps down the hall, and Cosima hisses, swatting feebly at whoever throws a blanket over her and then her body is picked up, the brunette struggling weakly as one of the guards drags her from the cell-

“It’s okay!”

Her eyes fly open as the fight goes out of her, before Cosima has to clench them shut again against the pain the bright sunlight brings.

“Cosima, it’s okay, you’re okay.”

She finds herself placed on the cool stones in the hallway of the dungeons, a relieved sob escaping her at the sensation of relative cold, compared to how boiling hot her own cell had been. Gentle hands cradle her face and her eyes flutter, staring up at Delphine’s worried face.

And here she’d thought that you were supposed to see your life flashing before your eyes before you died. Not the person you loved the most, the one you were dying for. Or maybe, the life thing, that’s just humans. Maybe vampires, they’re different, maybe their last vision is supposed to be-

Warm blood sprays across her face and before she can reign herself in, before she even knows what’s happening, her face is buried in the flesh of some strangers neck, blood spraying into her mouth as she sinks her fangs in and refuses to let go, drinking greedily, with an intensity she’s never known before.

“Cosima, ey,” Delphine murmurs, her fingers running through Cosima’s dirty hair as she tries to pry her off her victim. “Ey!” she exclaims and Cosima feels pain explode at her temple, setting of a new stick of dynamite inside her skull.

“He’s empty, Cosima. Cosima, you have to stop!” the blonde tells her, prying her off her first victim and Cosima whirls around, ready to jump her, to sink her fangs into the blonde’s soft flesh, her vision red and hunger consuming her, threatening to burn her from the inside-

There’s more! More blood, soft skin under her lips and she bites down, nails digging onto the shoulder of the next person she’s draining, Cosima curling around their body possessively. Latching on and refusing to let go, eyes closing as her body drinks greedily.

“That’s enough,” Delphine murmurs, gently stroking her hair. “Come on, Cosima. Let go,” she mutters, stroking her hair before she touches her neck. Grabs the back of it and tries to pry her off but Cosima only sinks her fangs in further, frustration welling up inside of her. There’s no more blood, why isn’t there more, there should be more-

“Here.”

Cold plastic, against the side of her face, but along with it, the smell of blood. She jerks back, fangs tearing the flesh of her second victim’s throat, her eyes zooming in on the blood bag that Delphine is holding out to her. She drops her victim, greedily grabbing for the blood bag and tearing into that, a relieved sob leaving her as the liquid runs down her throat, spilling over her lips when she can’t get a good seal on the bag, running down her neck and making an absolute mess of things.

“We need to go.”

The voice from before, the one that she heard, before there was a blanket thrown over her. Cosima blinks, eyes opening before they widen in shock at the sight of three vampires standing in the hallway of the dungeons beneath Dyad, none of them wearing suits or lab coats.

And Delphine. She’s here, Cosima realizes with a start, her mouth opening as she drops the nearly empty blood bag and throws herself at the blonde. The French vampire makes a soft sound and then her arms are around Cosima, holding her tightly as she shushes her, Cosima’s weak body shaking with sobs.

“It’s okay. You’re safe now, I’ve got you. It’s okay, you’re okay,” Delphine murmurs, holding her, hugging her to herself.

“Delphine.”

“Yes, yes,” the blonde sighs, pulling back a little to brush Cosima’s hair from the brunette’s face before she leans in and kisses her hungrily.

“We need to leave,” she husks, unfolding her legs from under herself. One of the others grabs Cosima’s upper arms, pulling her to her feet and catching her again when she’s too weak to hold herself up. He shakes his head and she lets out an indignant squeak when she feels herself lifted up into his arms like some weak child.

The guy grunts and just tightens his hold on her, and then someone hands her another blood bag and Cosima busies herself with sinking her fangs into that, closing her eyes as she drinks the contents. She can feel some of her strength returning to her, but she is still incredibly weak. Her vision is still fuzzy around the edges, her body still not really able to follow her commands, and her head feels as if it’s been stuffed with cotton. Nothing makes sense. Delphine, she shouldn’t be here. She’s supposed to be in Canada, thousands of miles away from Dyad. Not here, not within its dungeons, not for her. Cosima, she should be dead.

And maybe she is. Maybe this is death, she thinks, a ladden feeling taking hold of her limbs, causing her eyelids to droop. She tries to fight it, tries to fight off the fatigue, but she’s simply too weak, and her eyes flutter close and Cosima is powerless to do anything about it, her consciousness slipping through her fingers like sand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> apologies again for the long time between updates. i have been homeless since mid-november, and finally got a new place at the beginning of this month. it's meant a lot of wrestling which social service offices and paperwork and stuff, while i was "living" at a shelter. there hasn't been much writing output from me during that time, the only reason this got posted was because it was pretty much already finished when i was evicted from my old place.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **trigger/content warnings** in this chapter for **violence/gore, assault, sexual content**

The sheets are wonderfully soft, and so amazingly cool, against her skin.

She feels a wet cloth being pressed against her forehead, Cosima’s eyes fluttering for a moment.

“Sh,” Delphine whispers softly as her eyes find the blonde’s in the darkness of the room. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

Cosima lets out a soft hum, closing her eyes again. Just for a moment, she tells herself, but she really has no idea, how long she loses consciousness for again. She keeps drifting in and out, waking every couple of hours she thinks, to the scent of blood.

The first time, she loses control. Feels a red haze descent across her eyes and her brain shuts out any thought beyond feeding, beyond biting and consuming and sinking her fangs into soft skin.

In her more lucid moment, she thinks that she will be haunted, by this. By what she’s done. But then the next time she wakes, the hunger is back, gnawing at her insides, threatening to overpower her, and there’s soft skin under her fangs and all Cosima has to do is bite down and open her mouth and drink and the pain will go away for a while. So she does. She feeds and feeds and feeds, until she falls into a fitful rest, and then feeds again.

She’s not sure, how long she is stuck in this sort of limbo. The moments of her regaining consciousness, they grow longer. Long enough for her to open her eyes, to catch snippets of the world around her. In all of them, there’s Delphine. Her light blonde hair. Her soft touch as she brushes Cosima’s hair from her face. The smell of her shampoo as it clings to Cosima’s pillow. The soft dip of her brow. The gentleness of her washing Cosima’s face with a cool rag, the careful ministrations all over Cosima’s body as the French vampire cleans her, and then tries to cool Cosima’s body down.

She wakes again, blinking in the dim candlelight of the room. Next to her in bed is Delphine, her features relaxed in sleep. Cosima swallows, fingers twitching as she reaches out. Her hand trembles as she touches it to the blonde’s cheek and a sob spills from her lips.

Delphine’s eyelids flutter as she stirs, before they fly open and she sits up sharply, green eyes full of worry as the sheet falls down from her body, exposing her thin tank top.

“What is it?” she asks, searching Cosima’s face before pulling back the sheets to check over her body. “What is it, what’s wrong?”

The brunette just shakes her head, unable to breathe, unable to talk. She just reaches up, clutching at Delphine’s arms, nails digging into her soft skin. It makes Delphine let out a soft sound, realization seeming to dawn on the blonde.

“Hey, no, it’s okay,” she murmurs, sinking back into the mattress as she wraps her arms around Cosima, pulling the brunette closer. She shifts, hiding her face against Delphine’s neck as she tries to get closer to the blonde, presses against her, trying to get as close to her as she can without crawling inside of the blonde.

“I have you,” Delphine whispers, fingers of one hand gently scratching the back of her head while the other hand rubs slow circles on the skin of Cosima’s back. “I have you. You’re save now, you’re okay. I’m here, I have you. I have you, my Cosima.”

The floodgates open then, Cosima unable to keep down her emotions any longer, unable to fight them back and contain them. All her fear and desperation spills out and she screams in sheer agony, clutching at Delphine’s form as the blonde wraps around her, holding her tightly and making soft shushing sounds to soothe the burning ache of her soul.

* * *

She finds out in snippets. Short bursts of memories that Delphine lets her see.

_A bus, the stench of humans and gasoline. A cheap motel room. A gas station in the night, in the middle of nowhere. Rage filling her as she grabs the lapels of someone’s shirt, slamming them into a wall hard enough to leave a dent in the drywall. Fury, threatening to consume her, and below it, fear. Fear that’s eating away at her, fear and worry and-_

_Vials, filled with the familiar sight of their serum. The vile taste of it, burning her throat. The Institute, outside, light reflecting of the sleek surface of the building as the sun begins to rise, her hands curling into fists as her lips pulls back in a snarl, fangs extending in anger._

_Leekie’s office, blinds drawn. The disgusting piece of garbage leering at her, eyes traveling down her body, her fingers twitching at her sides._

_“Please, just let me know that she is alright.”_

_The words spilling from her lips, but her voice higher, the shapes different on her tongue, French accent coating them._

_Leekie’s lips on hers, disgust welling up inside of her. Clamping it down, willing her fists to uncurl. To not grab his wrist of the hand that’s squeezing her ass and snap the bones like twigs. Bile at the back of her throat as she forces herself to open her mouth, to kiss back, disgust coiling in the pit of her stomach._

_Stumbling across the room, allowing him to push her towards his desk. Reaching behind herself, fingers scrambling across the surface as he presses her against the wood, her body bending, trying to get away from him. The sensation of cool metal beneath her fingertips. Relief flooding her as her hand closes around the letter opener and she rams it into his neck, blood spraying her face as she pushes him off. Scrambling across the room as he roars and tries to yank her back by her curls. Her fingers pulling on the cord of the blinds, leg blindly kicking behind herself to get him off, to fight him back for just one moment._

_Sunlight flooding the room. A deafening howl of agony, screeches of pain as smoke burns her eyes and the stench of burning flesh fills her nostrils._

_Running, running down corridors and hallways. Nearly falling down a flight of stairs as her legs won’t carry her fast enough. Heels catching on the rough stone of the dungeon floor, slowing her down, lips curling back in a snarl as she throws herself at one of the guards, striking at them, blood spraying-_

_The sight of Cosima’s body, weak, skin pale and thin from lack of blood, on the stones of the hallway. Utter relief flooding her as she runs over and gathers her in her arms, holding Cosima, kissing her dirty, matted hair._

Delphine shows her, shows her the snippets between soft kisses, between the soft caresses of Cosima’s face, between holding her tightly. Shows her more, too. Moments from the lab, and their movie nights. Disjointed, brief images, but always with the same warm, soft feeling in her chest. A feeling that builds and builds, until it is ready to spill over, but it gets pushed down again and again, until, until that motel room and her hands in her blonde curls, pulling at them as she curls up, keels over with desperate sobs, yelling at herself that she should never, ever have left her-

Delphine’s kisses taste of desperation and pain. She clings to Cosima’s body and the brunette wraps her arms around her, holding the blonde tightly. Kisses back, her body curving up, pressing against the blonde’s, Delphine’s desperation spilling over into her, stroking her own emotions, and all she wants, as she needs is to feel her. Is for Delphine to know that they’re okay, Cosima is okay, they’re both okay. By some miracle, they have survived this. They’re still here, and they have all the time in the world, now.

She never allowed herself to imagine it. Forbade herself from indulging in the contemplation of what sex with Delphine would be like. It hadn’t really occurred to her, before the kiss, and then the blonde had shot her down, and after that, it would have felt like a violation. Like Delphine hadn’t given her permission to do this, so Cosima fought the mere notion of fantasizing about her.

She has permission now. Delphine presses back against her, fumbling with her clothes, trying to get out of them as quickly as possible without actually breaking their kiss. Her skin is soft, incredibly soft, and Cosima can’t help but try to kiss every inch of it, her lips trailing all over the blonde’s body, ears picking up the sounds the blonde makes. Her moans and whimpers and how her breath catches in her throat and how she whispers Cosima’s name with growing desperation. The feeling of Delphine between her legs, of the blonde’s thigh pressed between Cosima’s, the wetness sliding over the brunette’s thigh as they rock against each other, Cosima’s body still too weak for much else than this. Delphine’s mouth on her neck, licking at Cosima’s pulse, hands palming the brunette’s breasts as her back arches in pleasure. Delphine moaning into her mouth, kissing her hungrily as she pulls her closer, her hips jerking erratically before her body tenses and Cosima follows her over the edge, shouting the blonde’s name in pleasure.

The first time is frantic, born of pure desperation and a need to make sure that this, it’s real. That they’re both still here, still alive. That this hasn’t killed them, hasn’t destroyed them.

The second time is soft and gentle and slow. Cosima loses count of the kisses they exchange. Delphine’s hands on her body move slowly, with the same kind of awe that the brunette has felt before, when she was looking at tiny cells under a microscope for the very first time. She’s gentle and takes her time, leaving Cosima to squirm and curve her back and try to press into the touch and direct the blonde’s wonderful hands, but Delphine shakes her head, kissing her instead and continuing her exploration of Cosima’s body with sheer infuriating slowness, trying to commit it to memory, trying to figure out what she likes, what will get her to sigh, and moan, and dig her fingers into the soft flesh of Delphine’s waist to pull her close and seal her lips with a breathtaking kiss.

Everything after, it all starts to bleed together. Limbs moving, bodies pressing against each other, loud kisses, louder moans, chanting of each other’s names, whispered encouragements and amongst all, the gentlest, softest declarations of love. As her body heals and Cosima regains her strength, their lovemaking becomes longer, more intense, and she starts to explore Delphine’s body, cataloguing the blonde’s reactions to her touches with diligence.

Deep down, she knew. Knew even before Delphine showed her the snippets from her memory. She is a scientist, after all. Cosima figured that there was really only one reason that would have gotten Delphine to abandon her safety in Canada and not just come back to the States, but to have the blonde waltz right back into Dyad and take on Leekie himself. And then Delphine showed her, let Cosima feel what the blonde herself felt, at all those movie nights and their time working together in the lab.

Still, the first time Delphine’s lips mouth a breathless _‘je t’aime’_ against Cosima’s clavicle, it takes the brunette by utter surprise. She freezes, which makes Delphine still, as well. Makes her look up, her green eyes so wide and filled with confusion that quickly gives way to fear and Cosima shakes her head quickly and cradles her face to pull the blonde into a deep kiss, unable to speak, overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of love and relief she’s feeling.

She tells Delphine then, for the first time. Tells her she loves her, is in love with her. Tells her that when she thought she was going to die, all she had wanted, all she had been able to think about, had been Delphine and how much she wants the blonde to survive, wants her to live. Delphine blinks at her then, tears building in her eyes before she presses her lips to Cosima’s in an urgent kiss, fingers snagging on the material of Cosima’s shirt as she tries to get it off quickly, hips moving up to press against the brunette’s as she kisses her over and over again.

* * *

It’s almost three weeks, until she’s able to leave the bedroom for someplace else besides the bathroom. Until Cosima feels like she has enough strength back in her body and Delphine agrees with her. Will allow for them to venture out of the dingy motel room they’ve set up camp at.

By that point, she has lost count, of how many blood bags she’s torn into. How much it took, for that initial ravenous hunger to calm down even a little. Cosima knows it was, a lot. And in turn, it makes her very aware of how close to death she must have been. How close she came, to losing her life. Not just with the sun, that’s a given. No, by how much Dyad starved her, how long they let her go without food, without any kind of nourishment.

It took Delphine six days, to come back. To come to Cosima’s aid, to free the brunette. She’s not upset about it, even if the blonde herself has felt immense guilt over it. Cosima understands. She knows that coming back at all had been a huge risk, had been a massive gamble, and Cosima would have rather she not even try than risk her life. Than risk falling into Leekie’s hands and getting chained to the creep forever.

“Are you feeling alright?”

Delphine’s gentle inquiry cuts through Cosima’s thoughts. She sees the blonde shift next to her, sees her hand come up and feels her palm brush over her forehead before she pulls her head back, giving the blonde a glare. Watches, as Delphine blushes and her hand falls away again.

“I’m fine,” she tells her, reaching for the blonde’s hand to give it a gentle squeeze.

She didn’t leave her side once. The whole time that Cosima was drifting in and out consciousness, Delphine stayed at her side, keeping watch over her, making sure she fed, making sure she did not overfeed and allowed her body time to metabolize her meals before adding more, despite how tempting giving Cosima as much as she had craved would have been.

And then, when Cosima started feeling better, she still didn’t leave. She stayed with her, the entire time. Slept in her bed, held Cosima as she slept. Made love to her when she was awake, over and over and over again. And Cosima wouldn’t have wanted her to leave. She wanted her there, wanted to be as close as possible to the blonde. Even after three weeks, she finds parting with her for any period of time intensely difficult. Finds that she gets anxious, when Delphine is out of her sight. The result of being terrified for her, of worrying about her being killed, and her ordeal in Dyad’s dungeons. It will get better, with time. And that is something they have ample supply of, vampires that they are.

“Are you sure?” Delphine pushes, looking down the street. “We can, we can sit down. Take a moment, to rest-”

“Delphine,” Cosima rolls her eyes at the blonde. Leans up onto her tiptoes to brush her lips over Delphine’s in a chaste kiss. “We’ve been out of the car for a minute. I can make it to the store.”

“Okay,” Delphine nods, looking away as her jaw works. “I just… I, I worry,” she shrugs, drawing a shuddering breath. “You didn’t see yourself. You were so weak, Cosima, I thought, I thought-”

“Sh,” Cosima cuts her off as tears well up in the French vampire’s eyes. “Hey, none of that,” she mutters, letting go of Delphine’s hand in favor of being able to wrap her arms around the blonde in a soft hug. Feels Delphine shudder against her as she returns the hug, cradling the back of Cosima’s head before she turns her own and captures the brunette’s lips in a deep kiss. Touches her forehead against Cosima’s as she draws a shuddering breath.

“Come on,” Cosima murmurs, reaching up to cradle Delphine’s face gently. To stroke her thumbs over the blonde’s cheeks in a soft caress. “I want snacks. You promised we would get as many bags of chips as I wanted.”

“I did not!” the blonde exclaims, scandalized, pulling back a little, and Cosima feels her lips curl back in a grin. “I said two, maybe three, provided you didn’t try to eat them all at once. Your digestive system is still recovering-”

She reaches up and unceremoniously covers Delphine’s mouth with the palm of her hand, muffling the rest of her protest. Feels her let out her breath through her nose in a huff and Cosima arches a brow at her, waiting for Delphine to roll her eyes and inclines her head before she lowers her hand again.

“Thank you, for being supportive of my snacking needs,” she tells her with a smile. Sees Delphine narrow her eyes at her before she shakes her head.

“No chocolate, though,” Delphine adds, leaning back to avoid Cosima’s hand again. She grabs it, intertwining their fingers and kissing the back of Cosima’s hand. “It will make you feel miserable. Give your body a little more time to recover before you pour a ton of sugar down your throat. For my sake, please?” she tries, giving Cosima her best attempt at puppy eyes, and the brunette finds herself letting out a defeated sigh.

“Fine,” she agrees, butterflies taking off in her stomach at the beaming smile she receives for her answer.

“Thank you,” Delphine says primly before taking a step down the road towards the store. “Come on,” she murmurs, giving a slight pull on Cosima’s hand. “Let’s get your snacks and then go back to the room. Curl up in bed and find another terrible movie to watch.”

“Sounds fantastic,” Cosima smiles, bumping her arm against the other woman’s side and Delphine easily lifts her arm to allow Cosima to tug herself against her side. Which the brunette promptly does, slinging her arm around Delphine’s waist to get even closer to the blonde, her mind already going through a potential list of movie choices.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> only the epilogue left to go


	16. Epilogue

She reaches up, pressing her index finger over her lips in a shushing gesture.

The lab assistant gives a subtle nod and returns to her own work. Cosima bends down, setting down her purse carefully on the floor before she creeps closer to the tall blonde standing at the microscope, observing the slides.

Cosima reaches out, pressing up against the other woman’s back as she wraps her arms around her. Feels Delphine tense up inside the embrace.

“Easy,” she murmurs, and instantly feels the other vampire relax. Feels the tension leave her as she leans back a little into Cosima’s embrace before the brunette lets her arms fall away again.

Delphine turns around and leans down to brush her lips over Cosima’s in a soft kiss.

“What are you doing here?” she asks, her brows dipping into a slight frown as her eyes dart to the clock on the wall. And widen almost comically.

“Someone forget the time?” Cosima teases her, her tongue poking at the back of her teeth as she watches Delphine blush. She had tonight off. Only came in to pick Delphine up for their date night, but the blonde hadn’t been waiting outside for her, so Cosima thought she might still be working, having forgotten the time yet again.

“How-” she starts before cutting herself off. “I’m sorry, I know we said we’d go out for dinner, but I really need to finish this first. I’m sorry, my love,” she apologizes, but Cosima waves her off.

“It’s fine. We can order in, and have our date night some other day,” she tells Delphine, leaning over to cast a glance at the slides the other woman had just been looking at.

“Something new?” she asks, not recognizing the sample.

“Hm, not really,” Delphine shakes her head, kissing Cosima’s temple. “Scott asked me to have a look at his samples, see if I could figure out why he keeps running into issues with the replication process.”

“Ah,” Cosima nods. She likes Scott. He’s human, but a good scientist. Probably the best gene analyst she’s ever met, and that is definitely saying something.

She’s still incredibly relieved that Delphine’s vampire friend, from the Canadian lab, turned out to not have been in cahoots with Dyad or Leekie. That his Coven was willing to help Delphine get back to the States, and try to save Cosima, and if not that, then to take care of Leekie, once and for all.

Last Cosima heard, the Dyad Coven is now run by some female vampire by the name of Marion. She’s never met her before, in her time of working at the Institute. Delphine says she ran into her a few times, and that she doesn’t think that the woman would take revenge on them for disposing of Leekie. If anything, Marion seems to think he had it coming. She even offered them their old jobs back, with a rather substantial increase in their salary, too. But Cosima hadn’t wanted to set foot into that place ever again, and neither had Delphine. And since Delphine’s friend was still happy for them to come to Canada, the two decided to take the plunge.

It took some time, until they were able to leave the States. Until the Alliance finished their investigation and ruled that Delphine killing Leekie had been an extended act of self defense. Cosima is pretty sure that the fact the guy drugged her, threw her into a dungeon, and starved her for almost a week helped reach that ruling. Because the Alliance would probably have sentenced him to death over that, anyway, so Delphine killing him really helped them out, in the long run. It meant they wouldn’t have to get their hands dirty.

It was worth the wait, though. Canada has been good. Even if the lab is in Boomfuck Nowhere, Ontario. But after living in a big city for so long, Cosima is actually enjoying the peace and quiet of the countryside. It came as a surprise, but not an entirely unpleasant one. And being so far up North, it also means that the sun sets pretty early, in winter, which gives them more time to be out. She’s gone ice skating with Delphine this past week. They went to the movies, too, even though the films that had been playing had been old and pretty awful. It was nice, to go out with her, on a real date. So nice that they have made it a tradition. Go out on a date at least once a week, the two of them, and only the two of them.

Tonight would have been checking out a restaurant. They’re vampire run, so most of their menu is food that is easily digestible, for their kind. They came highly recommended, from Delphine’s friend. Speaking off…

“Alphonse told me to remind you that he needs to know, if we’re going to still be around for New Years,” she tells Delphine, searching the blonde’s eyes. “They’re trying to figure out the guest list and who’s going to be staying the night or more than one, and we are kind of, hogging two perfectly good rooms, right now.”

“I know,” Delphine sighs, reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose as she hangs her head. She’s been, reluctant to leave the safety of the Coven house. Not in the sense of going out, she doesn’t have a problem with that. But when it comes to finding a place of their own to live, the blonde has been dragging her feet a lot. At first Cosima worried that it was her. That Delphine was having second thoughts, about being with her, about sharing a place. It’s not that, though, the blonde has promised her that this has nothing to do with her not wanting to be with Cosima. She does, she wants to share her life with her. It’s just difficult, to step out of the safety that living with this Coven is providing.

“We can, table it,” Cosima offers. “Take another extension, and start looking at places again at the end of January.”

Delphine swallows thickly, looking away for a moment.

“I’m sorry,” she apologizes, her voice soft. “I know you were done, with Coven life. That you don’t like how busy it gets, how many people there are, even up here… It’s just…”

“There are a lot of people in one house,” Cosima agrees. “Lots of eyes and ears to notice if someone sneaks in that doesn’t belong. Safety in numbers,” she shrugs.

She has to admit, coming home to a house of people has been somewhat annoying, but she’s also found the knowledge that there were other people around calming. Should Dyad decide to come after them for revenge after all, then Delphine and her at least won’t be alone. They’ll have Alphonse and Damien and Rachel and Elizabeth and all the other members of their Coven to back them up, to help them, just like they already helped Delphine free Cosima in the first place. Besides, Alphonse hadn’t asked her by way of hinting he wanted them to move on. He’d genuinely only wanted to know so the Coven could plan their festivities accordingly and let their guests know they might need to make different arrangements, if they planned to stay the night.

“I’m sorry,” Delphine repeats, leaning in to brush her lips over Cosima’s in a gentle caress.

“Hm, I love it when you are,” Cosima tells her with a soft smile. “It usually means I am in for a treat when you try to apologize to me.”

Delphine lets out a self-deprecating chuckle at that.

“Maybe I need to stop messing up,” she remarks. “If you already know what to expect from my apologies, it feels like I may be in need of too many of those.”

“You’re just apologizing way too much,” Cosima shrugs. “Especially for things you don’t have to,” she adds, kissing her again. “Like wanting to stay at the Coven house for just a little longer.”

“Okay, okay,” Delphine laughs, warmth and happiness blooming inside Cosima’s chest at the wonderful sound. The blonde sobers again, meeting Cosima’s dark eyes.

“Je t’aime,” she declares, voice low and serious as she strokes Cosima’s cheek. “Je t’aime, tu sais? Je t’aime, Cosima.”

“Yeah, I know,” she nods. “And I love you, too,” Cosima replies, hugging Delphine and letting the blonde hold her, for a moment, until she feels her relax again.

“Alright,” she declares as she leans back. “Now let’s have a look at Scott’s samples, and then go home. I think Elizabeth mentioned something about tabletop game night, and if we’re not having our date night, then I’d at least like to participate in that.”

“Very well,” Delphine nods and goes to grab Cosima a lab coat while the brunette puts up her hair, already leaning over the microscope again to examine Scott’s work, looking for any obvious issues. She zooms in a little, looking up when she feels Delphine’s hand at the low of her back and accepts the lab coat with a smile, stepping back to put it on as her girlfriend launches into an explanation of the things she has already looked at and the theory she has come up with from that, Cosima’s lips curving into a smile as she watches Delphine’s hands move with her explanations.

She really has it bad for her, she thinks. Which is good, because Delphine seems to be just as in love with her. Maybe she should be grateful to Leekie, for what he did. Not for the scars it left, on Cosima’s body and Delphine’s soul as well as her own. But for pushing the blonde over the edge, for making her finally stop fighting her attraction to Cosima. If he hadn’t been so insistent in his pursuit of the French vampire, chances are that Delphine and her wouldn’t be together today.

The thought of Leekie being the thing that finally pushed them towards each other, of him being the reason why they’re involved now instead of still dancing around their feelings and pretending like friendship is all they ever want from each other, it does give Cosima a strange sense of smug satisfaction. Not only did he not get what he wanted, he actually achieved the opposite of it, and then ended up dead for his efforts.

Karma, it seems, can really be a bitch.

_fin._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and done! it feels weird, finally posting this, having the story end.
> 
> thank you to everyone who read this story! i hope you enjoyed it as much as i enjoyed writing it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> You can come yell at me on tumblr, either at [lttanyaboone](https://lttanyaboone.tumblr.com/) (writing only) or [cometocourtyou](https://cometocourtyou.tumblr.com/) (personal main blog).


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